How to Annoy the Goddess of Love
by Sugar Waffle
Summary: Sometimes quests go very wrong. Or very right, depending on how you look at it or who you ask. Contains sex and slash.
1. We Ruin Our Perfect Records

**Author's Note**: A few things. First, this is the first time I've written fic in like, years. I mean, I wrote drabbles and stuff but those were for specific people, so this is my first fanfic intended for a big audience since the last time I actually uploaded something. Second, this is my first time writing for PJO, so there's bound to be some off characterization. Third, this is the first time I've written porn like this in a very very VERY long time. So I apologize for like, everything. In any case, I hope you enjoy this! If you don't then, oh well, it was fun writing it either way!

**edit 1/24/13**: After thinking about it for a little while, I decided to turn this into a multiple chapter fic. After I get a general idea of how I want the story to move forward, I'll put up the second chapter. Thank you to everyone who enjoyed this! Your kind words really helped me.

* * *

If you were to ask Percy Jackson what was the strangest thing that had ever happened to him, you'd have to brace yourself for one very long and confusing conversation.

He might mention when he first discovered his godly heritage, and how his mother—the most perfect woman in the universe, thank you very much—disappeared right in front of his eyes. Or the time when he was turned into a guinea pig, or when he tricked killer dolphins into thinking his friend was a god, _or_... Well, basically, his life was pretty damn weird. Picking out a singular instance that outshone the rest would take a lot of thinking, and Percy had never been the type to just sit around and carefully analyze things. He liked to jump into things head first, much to the annoyance of everyone else ever who had to later deal with the consequences. Yeah, sure, he was pretty good at coming up with battle strategies, but all of his best work sprung out of last minute scrambling.

To put it more bluntly, it would take the moment hitting him in the face like a freight train for Percy to go, "Oh, yeah, now _that _was super weird!"

Months had passed since the defeat of Gaea, and unsurprisingly, no one thought to give the demigod a break from quests. In fact, he seemed to be getting them more often. Apparently saving the world multiple times meant that the gods were free to throw every tiny task at his feet. The other six from the prophecy were on the same boat as him (both literally and figuratively, considering the Argo II) but Percy got it extra bad. It probably had to do with his lack of filter when it came to addressing the higher beings. Unlike everyone else, he had no problem with pointing out that a god was wrong, which usually ended in them trying to vaporize him. And when that failed, they just resorted to holding grudges that would last a millennia.

He was currently on one of those quests; Aphrodite had gotten into a spat with Artemis, and now Percy had to recover some lost item or other, blah blah, the amount of times the gods lost something was getting ridiculous. Jason and Grover both accompanied him; he was admittedly a little bummed out that Annabeth couldn't make it since she was on some diplomacy mission at Camp Jupiter. Still, he trusted the two guys with his life. Grover was his best bud, of course, and Jason was... well. Admittedly, the two still had those weird macho, testosterone battles that made the girls groan and Leo and Frank exchange money. They couldn't help it! Both were considered leaders, and held a hefty amount of accomplishments under their metaphorical belts. No matter how chummy they became, there would always be that small voice in their heads going, "So who's better?"

Actually, that voice grew louder as they became better friends. Percy tried not to think about it too much.

After about a week of traveling, they located the missing item. It was wrapped very tightly in gold cloth, and they were warned by the goddess of love not to peek inside. Not wanting to get on her bad side, they all heeded her. Now the trio were wandering around Nebraska—at least, he thought it was Nebraska. They were kind of thrown through the air after being attacked by some pretty nasty wind spirits. No one _ever _listened to him when he said that air travel was a terrible idea. Why did no one remember Zeus was not a member of his fan club? Anyway, one minute they were happily cruising through the skies and the next they were swallowing dirt on some abandoned road in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, that was pretty typical of quests, but it still majorly sucked. Grover thought he smelled enchiladas, so he ran off to locate the (depending on who you asked) delicacies while the two demigods watched over camp.

Jason sat next to their small fire, constantly checking over it to make sure it didn't go out. It was times like these where Percy appreciated Leo a lot more, but there was no use complaining over that. The Roman would occasionally glance away from the flames, scanning through the darkness for the return of their companion. Percy had to admit that Jason looked much more professional than he did, with his neatly cut hair and muscular build. Percy looked as if he had just been through a hurricane (which wasn't that off) with his hair pointing in every direction and his shirt missing a sleeve after an unfortunate encounter with a drunk cyclops. Long story.

But if someone were to give the two guys a look, they would probably conclude that Jason was the leader. And that annoyed Percy, since it was technically his quest. It wasn't his fault that the younger demigod had lost less pieces of clothing throughout their current adventure! Or that Jason had a lot more time to get in shape than he had. Hell, Percy was in _amazing_ shape. He was just more lean than well built, but that suited his fighting style better. He wasn't even sure why he was even fussing over something like this. It was dumb and immature and, man, he would love to have a spar right now.

"Percy?" Jason's voice cut him out of his thoughts.

"Uh?" Percy cleverly replied.

The younger demigod frowned, as if he was puzzling over something that he just couldn't figure out. "Care to tell me why you're strangling that stick?"

_Stick?_ Sure enough, when Percy looked down at his hands, he held a twig that was practically snapped in half. Laughing nervously, he chucked it over his shoulder. "I don't think Grover is going to be back anytime soon, and I'm bored. Wanna train?"

Now, Jason was much more uptight than Percy was. It was the whole Roman thing—they were big sticklers for rules and unity and all that fun stuff. But he did share many qualities with the son of Poseidon as well. The opportunity of a fight formed a smile on his face, which made the small scar on his upper lip more apparent despite the dark night. Jason stood, picking up his sword from the ground and faced his companion.

"We don't want to get rusty," Jason agreed. He did give the area a cautious look over, checking to see if there weren't any monsters or mortals in viewing distance. The monsters they could easily handle, but the Mist might make the latter think they're witnessing two teenagers murdering each other. Percy was sadly well aware of how much trouble the Mist could make for a demigod. When everything seemed clear, the two got into position.

Jason was, without doubt, Percy's favorite person to fight against. They were evenly matched, which either got on his nerves or elated him. But the clang of bronze against gold that sent vibrations through his fingers, and the pain that would shoot up when he failed to dodge correctly—those small aches and stimulations were what he craved for. While killing monsters was a thrill, there was just something about battling another person that just made his heart hammer in his chest and his adrenaline burn.

The rush came to a stop when Jason miscalculated a dodge and stepped back a little too far, and onto a small parcel that sat near their bags. A shared look of horror appeared on their faces, and Percy and Jason began to do the only option left to them: Freak the hell out.

"Oh gods," Percy said, dropping Riptide to pull at the ends of his hair. "We broke it. We broke Aphrodite's—what was it again?"

"That doesn't matter," Jason said. He was doing his best to remain calm, but he couldn't hide his look of dread. "This isn't good, Jackson. I... I've never failed a quest before."

Percy let that sink in. His perfect record was also now ruined, and he took a moment to properly grieve it. But, again, that wasn't the real issue here. Their actual problem was the fact that Aphrodite had suddenly appeared right in front of them, and wow, they were going to die. Jason quickly rose to attention to greet the goddess, but Percy was still stuck in, "I am about to be turned into something fluffy and cute then roasted over our campfire" mode.

"Hello," the goddess said coolly. The two teens mumbled an appropriate reply. She either did not mind the unceremonious welcome, or she was so ticked off that she didn't notice. Percy hoped it wasn't option B.

"Usually when we send you off on quests," she continued, "we expect the item to be returned in one piece. Apparently I misplaced my faith when I chose you to locate it for me."

"We're, uh, really sorry," Percy said. The "Please don't make me into a pet dove" did not need to be added.

Jason nodded. "What we did was really dumb, and I can't even begin to let you know how horrible we feel. We'll do anything to make this right again."

Percy raised an eyebrow. _Anything_ was pushing it, but he understood that they were in a pretty desperate situation. The demigod was no expert on mythology, but he knew well enough that when you failed a god, bad things were sure to follow. So he managed to keep his mouth shut, and try his best at making puppy eyes at Aphrodite. She always did have a soft spot for him, after all, and he really hoped that trend would continue.

"You don't have to do anything," she said sweetly. Maybe too sweetly, but the boys were too shocked to notice. Percy resisted the urge to go for a high five. Aphrodite continued: "You tried your best, and that's enough. I have a date with Mars, so I'll see you two later. Ta-ta."

They shielded their eyes as she returned to her full godly form and disappeared. After a few seconds, they realized that they were definitely still in one piece and let out sighs of relief. Percy collapsed next to where the broken parcel once stood. It had disappeared along with the beautiful goddess. "I thought she was going to maim us."

Jason still stood on edge, but he smiled lightly. "Me too. It was a little... too easy though."

He was right. There should have been no way they escaped from that scenario without some form of punishment. After casting a nervous look around, they decided to go to bed and sleep until Grover returned. He was taking a lot longer than Percy thought he would, but thanks to his empathy link to the satyr, he knew that his friend wasn't in any danger. In fact, Grover probably would be better if he stayed away for a little longer. Who knew what might happen?

* * *

Jason's face was way too close.

That was the first thought that crossed Percy's mind when he sleepily opened an eye. The blond's body was only inches away from his own, and Percy could feel his breath on his neck. It sent shivers down his skin. Percy sat up, still stuck in that daze where you're still too groggy to process anything correctly. He was sure that they had fallen asleep on separate sides of the campfire. Yet, lo and behold, they were now practically snuggling. Could Jason have gotten up and moved closer to him? The idea was so ridiculous it almost made Percy laugh. Something else had to be going on.

He looked over the sleeping figure for any sort of clue, and was struck at how... well. Attractive Jason was. It was something he never thought about before, but considering how many girls fawned over him at both Camps, Percy knew it was true. There was something about his jawline that was especially enticing—whoa. Okay, no. This was starting to get weird. He shook the thought out of his head, and started to rise to move to a different spot. Instead he found himself leaning over Jason's sleeping form, quietly studying his features. His palms were sweaty, and his heart was beating rapidly, like it had during their fighting match from earlier. It didn't make sense, why was he acting so strangely?

Jason eyes opened, and Zeus should have smited Percy for how high he flew into the air from shock. The literal kind of shock, mind you, considering Jason hit him with a current of electricity. Percy groaned as he hit the ground, but he was quickly back on his feet. Never stay down when you're knocked over, unless there's a strategical advantage to it, of course. The two demigods stared at each other; one was alert, while the other looked extremely lost and out of it. After a moment, Jason managed to snap out of his tired state and stood.

"What were you doing?" the son of Jupiter demanded. Any trace of his sleepy stupor was gone; Jason was in full Roman mode now. "Wait, didn't I go to sleep over there?"

So Percy wasn't going crazy. Or maybe he was? He still couldn't shake that odd feeling he got when he was so close to Jason. It was like something was urging him to pull closer, to—who knows. Whatever it was, Percy didn't understand it. He had to get to the bottom of it before anything else weird happened, like how he was now closing the distance between the of them and pressing his lips against Jason's, and _what?_

No, that definitely did happen. He grabbed onto Jason's collar and pulled him in, their mouths clumsily mashing against one another's. It was rough and extremely awkward, and after a few seconds Percy broke the kiss himself. His face felt like it was on fire, and he briefly wondered if he was a descendent of Hephaestus when Jason climbed on top of him.

That was inaccurate. Jason actually pushed him down onto the dirt, and _then_ straddled him. Percy gaped, unable to keep up with what was going on. He kissed Jason, who now sat on top of him and was... also kissing him. It wasn't as rough as the initial one, but there was a tenacity that echoed his fighting style. And soon enough, Percy was kissing back, equally as determined. Determined to do what was the question though, and neither seemed to have any real idea as to what the answer was. Not that Percy could concentrate on that, though, as Jason's hands had slithered under the Greek's shirt. They traveled upwards until they found his nipples, and Percy soon discovered the delightful feeling of having them massaged and tugged. Not being one to be outdone, Percy's own hands gripped Jason's ass and he dug his nails into them. Despite the material in between them, Jason still smirked.

The smirk disappeared for a second as Jason knit his eyebrows together in confusion. He looked to be questioning what the hell they were doing, and while Percy shared the sentiment, he couldn't help but continue. He just felt like he had to, and he wasn't exactly sure why. He broke off the kiss and went for that jawline he had been admiring earlier. Percy kissed the skin, sucking at it in places where Jason seemed the most sensitive. Soon the Roman's shirt blocked any further progress, and with an annoyed growl Percy tore it off of him. While Jason was caught by surprise, Percy also managed to flip their positions so he was on top. He pinned the younger teen's arms down so he wouldn't try to reverse it, and then continued down his path. Once he reached Jason's navel, however, it began to dawn on him that he was way too close to the dude's assets. He sat up straight, and questioningly looked around as if the answer to what the hell he was doing would come leaping through the field at him.

"What is it?" Jason sounded impatient.

"I dunno," Percy answered. While he really wanted to continue with what was happening, there was still a sane part of him that reminded him that he was currently cheating on his girlfriend with Jason goddamn Grace in what may or may not be Nebraska. It almost made him want to punch himself in the face, and he probably would have done it too if Jason hadn't leaned over and once again captured Percy's lips in his. They battled for dominance, with Jason's hands yanking at Percy's dark hair. But there was no way he was going to let Jason win.

And so, Percy slid his hand down Jason's pants. The blond momentarily stopped, his eyes widening, and Percy knew they both shared a thought of, "Oh gods, what is happening?" But Percy stuck his hand inside the teen's boxers, and had a small moment of panic when he realized that he was now touching another person's dick. It was hard, much like his own, but he still couldn't shake the feeling that he was touching someone else's thing. Knowing that he seriously could not back out of it now, he slowly slid his hand down Jason's shaft and back up again. He did it a few more times in that careful, experimental, pace but when Jason let out a few moans of approval he began to pick up the pace.

Jacking someone else off was a rather unique experience, but the sensation of Jason squirming against his skin was more than enough to keep Percy going. He felt himself throbbing in his pants, aching for a little attention, but he ignored it to concentrate on his fellow demigod. Jason writhed on the ground, his blue eyes cloudy. Every now and then he sent small shocks into Percy, which the son of Poseidon figured was a good thing. Percy went back to kissing Jason's neck, and he worked very hard to make sure marks were left. He wanted to make sure that some piece of him was left on the blond, some kind of territorial mark so other can know that he had claimed him. Which was a crazy thought, considering he didn't want anyone to ever know what was going on.

After one last stroke, Jason came into his lover's hand. Percy laughed against tan skin, and brushed his lips lightly over a collarbone before returning to eye level with Jason. There was a distant look on his face, as if he still hadn't recovered from what just occurred, but Percy couldn't blame him. He _did_ just receive a handjob from a guy who was not his Native American girlfriend. Percy apparently miscalculated just how out of it he was, though, because Jason suddenly had him pinned to the ground.

"Your turn," Jason said, his voice ringing with authority. Before Percy could even think of a way to protest (not that he would) Jason pulled down both his jeans and his underwear. Having your bare bottom pressed against dirt was not an experience he would recommend to anyone, but Percy didn't have time to think too much on that. Jason had moved his face to Percy's thigh, kissing it gently. The closer he got to Percy's erection, the harder he pressed against the flushed skin. Percy let out a moan that was way too embarrassing for his liking, and he stared hungrily at Jason, waiting for what would come next.

No pun intended.

Jason's mouth brushed lightly against Percy's shaft, and it sent a shudder throughout his body. Yeah, he wondered what it would be like to get a blowjob, but he figured that if the day ever came it would be with a different blond. He wasn't exactly complaining when Jason began to suck, sometimes gently, and other times with his teeth. Percy knew that the Roman was doing it on purpose, to mess with him, but all he could really do to protest was dig his nails a little too deep into Jason's back. Jason fell into a rhythm, allowing his friend's cock to go as deeply into his throat as he could manage before pulling out again. In a blind moment of pleasure, Percy thrust his hips, causing Jason to choke. His reply was biting down a bit before going back into his rhythm of sucking. His fingers played with Percy's balls, squeezing and massaging them as he deep throated their owner.

He came, filling Jason's mouth with his warmth. Jason sputtered, pulling away and spitting it out in such an undignified motion that Percy laughed out loud. Jason glared down at the older guy, but then grinned and kissed him. It was pretty disgusting, as Percy never wanted to know what his own junk tasted like, but he still kissed back. They stayed like that for a while, only breaking a part to gasp for air and mutter things like, "What?" and other sexy phrases. Percy was just about to pull Jason's pants fully down when a voice behind them interrupted.

"Is this a bad time?" Aphrodite sat a small table and chair that magically appeared along with her. She calmly sipped out of a cup, watching the two of them play tongue tango with great interest.

The two demigods froze, looked at each other, and then made a mad scramble to untangle themselves. After what felt like way too long, the two stood facing the goddess, their faces bright red. It took another few seconds for Percy to realize his thing was still exposed to the world, so he hastily pulled up his jeans. Aphrodite merely drank her tea as if this was something she saw all the time. And considering what her domain was, Percy was pretty sure that she did.

"I think we all had a lot of fun, don't you?" she said brightly. She then gestured at a plate of cookies on the table. "Want one? You burned a lot of calories, so you should probably have a bite."

Realization of what had happened began to dawn on Percy, and his embarrassment turned to rage. No wonder the goddess was so forgiving earlier—she had something planned all along! A plan that included... er. He preferred not to think too much about it, especially given that he still wanted to rip off the rest of Jason's clothing. The other demigod appeared to have figured it out as well, because his face was now a shade of green that did not compliment his features.

"You—you made us do stuff!" Percy shouted. "I have Annabeth, and I... Holy crap, what did I do?"

The yelling irked Aphrodite, but thankfully she just put her cup down instead of angrily blasting any demigods that happened to be in the vicinity. She let out a drawn out sigh, as if she had gone through this conversation many times before (again, she probably has). "The two of you are always so eager to fight each other, so I decided to let you do a... ah, different kind of battle. You did quite well, I actually blushed."

"That's not fighting! That's—" Jason started, but he was unable to describe what exactly it was that they did. That, or he didn't want to.

"Tsk," the goddess said. "Love is war, so what you did was exactly that. Speaking of war, I honestly do have a date with the god of it. I hope you two have learned to not break my things." And with that, she disappeared, along with her table and chair. Percy didn't even get to try a cookie.

The two sat in uncomfortable silence. Percy wasn't sure about Jason, but he still wanted to continue where they left off. But the knowledge that it was all Aphrodite's revenge was a real turnoff, so instead he awkwardly stared at his feet. Jason concentrated on staring at the direction where Grover had ran off to hours before.

Oh, shit. Grover.

The satyr now approached, singing happily and holding what appeared to be a gigantic enchilada. Well, that's weird. The two demigods began to quickly clean themselves off while trying to not come off as suspicious to their returning friend. When Grover was finally near enough, he broke into a wild grin. "I found an enchilada festival! Oh, it was so great. I was going to come back to get you guys, but then I ran into a group of nymphs and..."

He paused, and looked at each of them. Percy forced a smile on his face, and Jason tried to laugh but it came out more as a whimper. Grover frowned, and gingerly set his giant meal aside. "Is something wrong? The two of you smell weird."

"Hey, I have an idea!" Percy interrupted. "Why don't you tell us more about that festival?"

And to Percy's relief, Grover happily obliged.

* * *

The rest of the journey back to Camp Half-Blood was long and awkward as hell. Grover knew something was up, but after the first few failed attempts at initiating conversation, he gave up. Percy felt bad, but there was no way anyone was going to find out about the little escapade in Nebraska. Hell, he wished he was out of the loop as well.

The thing was, he wasn't exactly sure if Aphrodite's spell had completely faded. After the first night, Percy no longer wanted to ride Jason into the sunset. But there was still a pang in his stomach when he looked at him, and a sort of longing that he only felt for a very small amount of people—all girls—that wasn't there before. He wanted to ask Jason about it, but the two had made a silent pact to never bring up what had occurred again. Sometimes Percy worried that he was the only one affected in that way, but he would occasionally catch Jason staring a little too long at him. Percy didn't know if they were still experiencing the effects of it, or if it had just opened the door to something else. But one thing he did know for sure: He couldn't do anything about it.

One night, a couple of weeks after the incident, Percy found Jason sitting next to the lake. He almost turned around the way he came, but that was dumb. He couldn't hide from his friend forever. So he sat down next to him, and thankfully Jason nodded instead of running away screaming. That made Percy feel somewhat better about things.

"This sucks," Jason said.

Understatement of the year, but Percy smiled anyway. "Apparently it's not the only thing that does."

The remark earned him a punch in the gut, but Percy knew he deserved it anyway. He rubbed his sore stomach, and was about to apologize for it when instead he felt himself pulled into another kiss. Percy momentarily panicked, wondering if there were any peeping goddesses nearby or, even worse, girlfriends. But he soon forgot about that and kissed back. It was pretty chaste compared to the ones from before, but he enjoyed it a lot. Sometimes things were better when they were just kept simple.

"That was the last one," Jason said when he pulled away. He looked pained, as if he had to fight himself in order to give Percy that kiss. He probably did. "I like Piper. A lot. And I don't ever want to hurt her, and I know you feel the same way about Annabeth. I just... I don't know. I needed closure, I guess. I kept thinking back to what we did, and it made me mad. And ashamed. But I liked it. I guess I just wanted you to know that."

Percy's emotional response was gaping and nodding like an idiot. When he finally managed to pull himself together, he replied: "Me too. I don't know if Aphrodite is still messing around or not, but... Thanks. For saying something. And the kiss, I guess."

They laughed. Even if nothing would ever come from the experience, Percy was glad that it was with Jason. Er, not that he was glad that he got to fool around with Jason specifically, but—it was best not to think about it too much. He leaned lightly against the Roman, and they sat like that until dawn approached. Together, with the other as support.

If you were to ask Percy Jackson what was the strangest thing that had ever happened to him, the only response you'd get will be his nervous sputtering before he runs away.


	2. I Stop Trusting Redheads

**Author's Note:** I really want to thank everyone who gave such a warm reaction to the first chapter! Because of your words I decided to continue on with this story. I hope that you will all continue to enjoy it even half as much as I enjoyed writing it. You're the best! Also just a disappointing warning: This chapter doesn't have anything sexual in it. There will be things like that in future chapters though, which I am preemptively apologizing for now. I'm so sorry you have to read my smut.

Anyway, here's the second chapter! See you next time.

* * *

Life went on normally.

Or as normally as it could be for a demigod. The amount of quests given by the gods refused to lighten up, and it was even beginning to affect the other residents of the camps. Everyone was either running around in an effort to prepare for a quest or returning from one, bruised and exhausted. Mount Olympus was either having some serious problems, or they were all just being lazier than usual. And knowing them, it could be either option.

Percy honestly didn't complain as much about it anymore. Yeah, he was tired. And yeah, he just wanted some time to go out and visit his mom. But the constant stream of activity kept him busy, and the busier he was the less he would think about certain things. Certain things like a younger male with rough hands and a large—okay, stop there. He really had to stop his thoughts from going there again. That was exactly the reason he liked to be on the move all the time. Running from and slaying the murderous monster of the week sent him on autopilot, and the demigod would be able to take care of business without fretting over the mistakes of the past. And boy, they were some mistakes.

His relationship with Jason had returned to what it had been. At least, for the most part. Every now and then Percy would catch himself staring a little too long at the son of Jupiter, and he'd have to quickly turn away before someone noticed. It was something he would berate himself for; after all, Annabeth was his girlfriend. A girlfriend he cared about a lot, and some weird... whatever the heck that was with Jason shouldn't—_wouldn't_—change that. And on top of all that, he wasn't even sure if Jason was even conflicted about it anymore. Sure, they kissed that one time at the lake, but the other demigod gave no other indication that he was even remotely interested afterward. There was no longing glances from him, or any sort of awkwardness at all. It was like he had successfully tucked away any sort of feeling other than friendship.

Which was, technically, a good thing. Percy had to remind himself of that. The fact that he was even still fretting about this stuff was what was really worrisome here, not whether or not Jason might have a crush. He wondered if Aphrodite's spell affected him more than it had his companion. That would explain why he seemed to be the only one still worked up about it. And the goddess did love it when romances ended in tragedy, so only having one member of the party still act dumb would definitely amuse her more than having both of them do so. If he thought about it from that perspective, it did make a lot of sense. He wasn't happy about it and had to force himself not to go to Olympus to strangle the goddess, but at least there was a logical reason for it. As logical as Greek mythology can get, anyway. All he had to do was figure out how to actually solve the problem.

And that was another problem. Annabeth was normally the one he went to when issues would arise. But he couldn't exactly approach her with this one. What would he say? "Hey, I love you and all, but I accidentally messed around with Jason two months ago and now I can't stop picturing him naked. Any advice?" Yeah, because that wouldn't end horribly at all. No, he had to figure this out in some other manner. He'd just have to get creative about it. The question was, who could he ask that wouldn't A) get suspicious or B) mention it to anyone else? Grover wasn't an option; the satyr still looked at both boys as if he knew something was up, but he couldn't quite piece the situation together. The thought of getting Chiron involved made him uncomfortable beyond belief, Hazel and Frank were currently at Jupiter, Leo was on a quest with some people from his cabin, and Piper was as involved with the issue as Annabeth was. With all of this in consideration, there was only one person he could approach.

So Percy found himself heading to the Oracle's cave that his friend, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, sometimes called a home. She had just settled back into camp a week before, and Percy almost went to her then. He managed to talk himself out of it; what if she started to glow green and gave some sort of prophecy like, "_With your love life you are out of luck / Enjoy your life as a monk_," or something? But he was getting desperate, and he knew that even if she suspected something from it, she would trust him enough not to tell. He definitely needed that right now.

"Rachel?" he called out, poking his head inside the cave once he reached it. Apollo seriously pulled all the stops to make sure his Oracle was comfortable. Hell, it looked nicer than Percy's own cabin. Rachel sat on a large beanbag chair as her big screen showed some Johnny Depp movie. She sat up when she heard his voice and stretched.

"Hey," she replied, "ever heard of knocking?"

Oops. Percy hastily knocked once before letting himself fully enter. The action got him a snort in reply, which he took as a good sign. Rachel didn't actually appear to be annoyed at the intrusion. He settled on another chair next to hers, and tried to figure out where to begin. He had decided to get her help, but he wasn't exactly sure what to tell her. He didn't feel comfortable telling her the full story, especially without Jason's consent. He had to start somewhere though. "I need your, uh, opinion on something."

She raised an eyebrow. "Really? If it's gift advice, then I know that Annabeth is looking at this one pair of earrings..."

"What? No. I mean, feel free to tell me about that later, but this is about something else." So far so good, he mused. Now to be as smooth as only Percy Jackson could be. "I was wondering about when gods curse people. Hypothetically speaking, if one of them put some kind of spell or charm on a person, how would they go about getting rid of it?"

"Hm," Rachel looked somewhat amused, as if she knew there was more to the story that Percy was letting on. He had a small moment of panic where he wondered if she did have a vision about this, but he set the fear aside as she continued. "Normally, they don't. They either stay like that for the rest of their lives, or another god feels sorry for them and alleviates some of it. In some cases they do actually get rid of whatever's bothering them, but you know how these stories tend to end for demigods. Rocks fall, everyone dies."

He was expecting that answer. Still, it couldn't hurt to try, right? "What about getting the god who was a jerk in the first place to take it back? That can happen, right?"

"Percy, who did you piss off and what did they do to you?"

"No one!" Percy winced when he realized he said that a little too quickly. "Nothing. I'm just curious. Can't I take an interest in learning about my heritage without being doubted? I'm hurt, Dare."

The girl narrowed her eyes at him, obviously not buying the lie, but she finally sighed and leaned back into her chair. "Fine, whatever. Anyway, I'm sure it'll be no problem for them to reverse whatever they did. The hard part is actually getting them to agree to it. You know how gods are better than I do—they're extremely proud, and don't like to admit that they're wrong. It might be easier to hold up the sky than get one of them to change their mind like that."

Luckily for Percy, he has had experience with such an endeavor. All of this was theoretical was, in any case. There was a chance he was just simply imagining these feelings. Or, if Aphrodite was actually still involved, they could wear off on their own like they apparently did with Jason. After all, this did involve Piper, one of her daughters. Would the goddess risk ruining her own child's relationship just for a cheap shot at revenge?

Probably, yeah, now that he thought about it. He let out a frustrated sigh that made Rachel frown even more. She got up from her seat and approached him, not stopping until she was right in his face. There, she nudged him on the shoulder. "I have no idea what's wrong, but whenever you want to come clean, you know I'm here for you. And so is everyone else."

Guilt grabbing at him, Percy nodded. He knew that any of his friends wouldn't hesitate to help him figure out what was happening. Hell, they'd march up to Aphrodite with him to get everything straightened—no pun intended—out. This just wasn't something he could easily bring up to anyone though. He knew that while he could ask others about ways to break enchantments, he was on his own when it actually came to doing the deed. There was Jason, but Percy didn't really want to approach him on the matter if he was completely back to normal. The son of Poseidon's pride would not allow it. So instead of revealing what was bothering him, he exchanged farewells with his redheaded friend and jogged back to the main campsite. He planned to get some sparring done to clear his head when he ran into the problem.

The problem being, of course, Jason Grace. He had left to Camp Jupiter when his fellow Romans did, but returned around the same time as Rachel. In his arms were a large pile of books and scrolls, and he struggled to keep them balanced after colliding with the son of Poseidon.

"Watch it, Jackson," he warned, trying to steady himself. "Where's the fire?"

"I'm the water guy, remember?"

That earned him a chuckle. Everything seemed normal for a moment then, like before everything happened and they could just easily talk and make fun of each other in somewhat passive aggressive ways. But then Percy began to notice things: How muscular Jason's arms looked in short sleeves, how he bit his lip slightly while shifting the weight of his cargo, how—this was so a problem. And the worst part was, of course, the fact that Jason didn't seemed bothered at all. How unfair was that?! For once Percy would liked to be the one who got to relax and not to worry about saving the world or wanting to kiss his taken best friend. He _so_ deserved a break. Maybe in Hawaii. Were there demigods in Hawaii? He'd have to look into that.

"If you want to practice, I have to tell you that Clarisse claimed the arena as her own today. It might not be a pretty sight if you wander in there," Jason said. When Percy strained his ears, he could hear the distant sound of metal clashing against metal and the yells of some angry teenagers. While he knew he would have no problem against them, he definitely wasn't in the mood to deal with whatever the inhabitants of the Ares cabin were up to. Scrapping that plan, he instead turned towards the direction of his cabin.

"If you're not busy, mind lending me a hand here?" Jason asked before the older teen could depart. Although he should have thought of some sort of excuse to get out of it, Percy nodded and grabbed a bundle of scrolls from his friend's arms. They looked pretty old now that he had a closer look at them; they must have been pretty important. He found himself carrying them a little more gingerly than he had a few seconds before. The readings, he remembered, were what Jason had returned to Camp Half-Blood for, so now that he had them he'd be going back to his own camp. Percy wasn't sure if it was disappointment or relief that he felt.

"Starting up a library?" Percy said idly.

"Please," Jason replied, "our library makes yours look like a bookshelf. Reyna wanted these for some reason, I wasn't really listening..."

Jason not listening? Now that was a surprise, but Percy kept the commentary to himself. He wondered why the Praetor didn't come herself, but she might still feel a little bad for almost burning the Greek camp to the ground before when Gaea was still a threat. Either way, Percy didn't actually mind. Ignoring the weird feelings that were a constant pain in the neck, it was nice to be with a friend. All the constant motion as of late made it difficult to just hang out with one another. He asked Jason how Hazel and Frank were doing. Apparently they were teaching the other campers how to properly work along with the Greeks. While that was a good sign, it kind of hurt that they even needed the lesson. Then again, thousands of years of hatred wouldn't just wash away after half a year. Percy's time with them taught him just how strongly the Romans held onto their beliefs. The pair were just starting to make fun of Octavian and his teddy bears when they reached the Big House. They both entered, and Jason gestured for the books to be set on a table that was already covered with junk. Percy happily obliged.

"Is this everything? " Percy asked, leaning against a shelf.

"Yeah. I'll probably head back tomorrow, " the blond replied.

Percy hoped that his facial expression didn't betray him, and lightly bumped his head against the shelf. Despite the lack of force, though, a shower of items still rained down on him. Percy jumped out of the way to miss the brunt of the impact, but he was covered in dust and debris. Jason seemed caught between wanting to laugh and showing concern, but in the end he gave into the former.

"Ha ha," Percy said dryly. He tried to shake the dust off him, but it continued to cling on. Great, now he needed a bath.

"Hold on," Jason finally managed to say when he calmed down. He closed the distance between them and reached his hand out. His fingers pressed against Percy's skin as he brushed the dirt off. It was more tender than Percy had expected, and he tensed at the touch. His body was tingling. This was the most intimate they have been with each other since the lake, and it took the demigod more by surprise than the shelf did. Red flags were flashing in his head; this was not good. He was enjoying it too much and, gods, this was too weird. Breathe, Jackson.

And, worst of all, Jason seemed to have noticed the unease. He backed away, frowning at his hand then at his fellow demigod. Percy felt embarrassment wash over him. He was definitely showing how cool he was. Behold, everyone, the great Percy Jackson: Slayer of giants, destroyer of Kronos, blusher like a schoolgirl with a crush. No autographs, please.

"I can get rid of it myself," Percy finally said, cracking a grin to ease the tension. It wasn't his best attempt, but Jason nodded nonetheless. He probably didn't want to think too much into what happened. Percy continued, "Anyway, I'll clean up this mess before Chiron shows up. The last thing I need is an angry horse."

Jason offered to help pick up the mess, but Percy just denied it. After a few minutes the son of Jupiter finally departed, leaving Percy to tend to his wounded ego. This was way too much. To be fair, he no longer wanted to jump into Jason's pants like he did when they failed Aphrodite's quest. The attraction lessened from that, so it felt more like a quiet ebb for the most part instead of his hormones raging at him. It sort of reminded him of his time spent with Calypso. He liked her a lot—hell, there was still a pang in his chest when he thought about her—but there was no way he could be with her. But even if his current situation wasn't as bad as it was before, Percy still was overcome with guilt over it. He had to put a stop to this.

Looks like he'll be making that trip to the Empire State Building after all.

* * *

Percy was sort of an expert at sneaking out of camp. From leaving with the help of Hermes to following Nico to the Underworld, the demigod had quite a bit of experience when it came to breaking his curfew. So when it came time to picking up Blackjack from the stables and quietly heading towards the forest, Percy didn't feel nervous at all. Plus with how crazy things had gotten lately, no one would even notice he was gone. Not even the harpies would spare him a glance with all the commotion.

After he mounted his pegasus, it didn't take long for them to soar out into the sky towards Manhattan. His winged horse chatted animatedly the whole way there, which usually would get on Percy's nerves but he didn't mind it so much this time. He needed the distraction so he wouldn't rethink what he was about to do. It was crazy, stupid, and—on second thought, most of his plans were. But still, if anything went wrong, if Aphrodite lost her temper, things could explode in a big way. He might return home as a goldfish and no one would have any idea it was him. Or worse, they would know it was him and he'd be forever known as Perseus, the demigod who ate fish flakes. Despite the risks, he had to try. If Percy was one thing, it was stubborn.

When the scenery melted from trees to high rise buildings, Percy knew that he made it to the city. The sky was still dark although he could see the distant gleam of the sun beginning to rise. Early morning traffic traveled below him, and Percy quickened the pace; he wanted to get dropped off before too many mortals were roaming the streets. The Mist should hide Blackjack from them, but Percy had enough experience with the magic to not entirely trust it. The last thing he needed was some headline about a teenager terrorizing the skyline with a hang glider or something. They landed in an alley a few blocks from the Empire State Building, and Percy told the horse that he can return to camp. If everything turned out well, he'd stay the night over at his apartment in the city. Seeing his mom and Paul after so long would greatly improve his mood.

When he reached his goal, he entered into the lobby after a pair of businessman discussing the stock exchange, or something equally as boring. Percy cut in front of them, which they weren't exactly happy about and muttered some unpleasant things about the youth of today, and went straight to the front desk. Behind it sat a woman who appeared to be in her mid-twenties. She looked at Percy with a big smile on her face that just had to be forced. It felt painful to even look at it.

"How may I help you today?" she asked.

"I need to get to floor six hundred," Percy said.

The woman appeared confused. "I'm sorry, that floor doesn't exist."

Percy had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. He had already been through this routine, and this time he didn't have a super weapon to cut it short. Instead he leaned in and lowered his voice. "This is important. I need to see Aphrodite. _Now_."

"Oh," she said, a look of something—recognition?—flashing in her eyes. "You wouldn't happen to be Percy Jackson, would you?"

That perked him up. Maybe she heard of his miraculous feats? Defeating the titans, stopping Gaea from destroying the world, and all that other fun stuff. He couldn't stop himself from puffing his chest out a little as he confirmed it. "Yeah. So, about letting me up to Olympus..."

Her smile brightened. "I'm sorry, but I have special orders from the goddess to not let you see her. Please leave the premises before I call security."

Percy gaped. Out of all the things he expected to happen on this trip, that was not one of them. His eyes darted to where he knew the key to the elevator rested; he could grab it and make a break for it. But for all he knew, the woman might be a minor goddess, or the security guards were something that would put up a fight. The mental headline from earlier changed from being about hang glider to bringing havoc and destruction to the Empire State Building. He had spent more than enough time on America's Most Wanted, thank you very much. So he gave the receptionist a not-so-friendly look and walked outside. He'd just have to figure out another, less direct, strategy to confront Aphrodite.

"What are you doing?"

The voice startled Percy so much that he involuntarily pulled out his pen. Luckily he didn't uncap it to turn it into its slightly more deadly sword form, Riptide. It was only Jason though, and not pissed off security guards. Wait, Jason? What was he doing in Manhattan?

"Admiring the architecture," the son of the sea god lied. "Look at how great this wall is. So sturdy."

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Jason didn't buy it. He glanced upwards to where they both knew Mount Olympus stood, high above New York City. He seemed to be considering all the possibilities before he finally spoke again. "Why are you trying to sneak up there? You know we can't just show up whenever we want to."

His tone made it sound like he had wanted to do that very thing plenty of times before, and Percy couldn't blame him. But if he admitted to wanting to talk to Aphrodite, it wouldn't take Jason too long to figure out the reason why. Percy shrugged. "I wanted to talk to my dad about something."

It was another flimsy lie. Poseidon was most likely to be in his palace under the sea instead of here, but it was the most believable thing he could think of. He could see the doubt in his friend's face, but Jason sighed. He probably found no reason to openly question the statement. "You still shouldn't run off like that. Rachel saw you fly off with Blackjack and was worried about you, so I tailed you."

Damn. Maybe he trusted Rachel to keep things to herself a little too much. "What is she, my mom? I'm fine, Jason."

And as if to prove his point, he turned and started walking in the direction of his home. He didn't turn to see if Jason was following, but he could hear the other demigod's footsteps behind him. Soon they were walking side by side on the sidewalk. There were more people around than earlier, and the sun had finally risen.

"Where are you going?" Jason asked after a beat. Percy knew that the guy didn't have too much experience with the city, so he watched with amusement as the blond took in the surroundings. It was less like a tourist, and more like someone who hadn't visited in a long time and couldn't remember where everything was. Percy found it somewhat cute, and he internally beat himself up for thinking that.

"To my place," he answered. "I'm going to spend the day here and go back to camp tomorrow. Don't worry, I'll let camp know where I am."

Jason nodded, and the pair walked in silence for a few blocks. Suddenly, an idea struck Percy. There was a high chance it wouldn't work since Jason was due to return to California that very day, but he still went for it anyway. "Want to hang out? Just for a few hours. There's an awesome pizza place near my apartment."

The younger teen considered the offer, most likely weighing it against the importance of returning to Camp Jupiter. Percy was feeling stupid for asking, and was about to hastily retract the offer when Jason smiled. "Yeah, sure. I don't have to leave right away."

Percy smiled back. Then remembered that he was supposed to be trying to put an end to this dumb crush and not inviting the guy over for a meal. It was times like these that made him wonder how the hell did he manage to survive this long.

* * *

Sally Jackson was so excited to see her son that she pulled him into a hug that lasted at least five minutes. Afterwards, she gave him a scolding regarding how dangerous it was for a half-blood to leave camp without permission for equally as long. Percy grinned through the entire thing. He introduced her to Jason, who was so polite Percy could have puked, and she welcomed him into their home.

"I don't have anything to do today," she told them. "Why don't we spend the day out?"

And so the three of them spent the day as tourists, giving Jason a proper look around the city. His mom even took pictures of them and bought 'I Heart New York' t-shirts for them to wear. Ironically, of course. They went from the Statue of Liberty (which was created by a son of Athena) to the huge Toys "R" Us on Times Square. They ate lunch in Central Park, although Percy didn't want to spend too much time there. He still harbored some slightly bad feelings from the war. Plus the Cleopatra's Needle, where they ate next to, gave him a weird vibe that he could't exactly explain. They didn't arrive back to the apartment until evening, and Paul greeted them at the door. Soon after, the four left to eat dinner at the pizza place.

It wasn't until then that Percy remembered that Jason should have left hours ago. He suddenly felt guilty; he made the guy waste so much time because he was selfish. But when Percy brought the subject up, Jason just waved him off. He said that he could just return to Camp Half-Blood with Percy in the morning, and then leave to his own camp after. He already asked Sally for permission to spend the night.

And for the second time that day, Percy found himself gaping at a turn of events he did not expect. Jason was going to be sleeping over his place. They would be spending the night together. At his apartment. By themselves.

Okay, yeah, his mom and stepdad would be there, but Jason would most likely be sleeping in his room. He had a feeling he might be blushing, so he decided to busy himself by stuffing his mouth full of pizza. He really had to appreciate the irony in the fact that he came here to put an end to whatever was going on, but instead all he accomplished was possibly making it worse. Maybe he'll become a cautionary tale in the demigod history books that way. Knowing Greek and Roman history, it wouldn't be that surprising.

"Cool," he managed to say after swallowing at least two slices of pepperoni pizza.

When they finished with their meal, the group headed back to the apartment. Along the way, Jason told them stories of Camp Jupiter and his life there. When he talked about Piper, Percy felt a sort of lurch in his stomach. Either his dinner was not agreeing with him or he was jealous. He was really, really hoping that it was the former option. It was pretty late when they got home, so his mom and Paul excused themselves to bed and left the teenagers on their own. There was an awkward moment of silence before Percy suggested they take turns with showering, and headed to the bathroom first.

He knew why he was acting strangely, but he couldn't exactly figure out why Jason was as well. Percy was ashamed to admit that he had a small flicker of hope that Jason was feeling nervous for the same reason he was, but that wasn't too likely. He was probably still trying to figure out the real reason Percy left the camp. After he finished his shower, he gave Jason some pajamas of him to wear. They probably wouldn't fit exactly, but he couldn't just let the guy sleep in the clothes he walked around in all day.

His mom had dug out a sleeping bag of Paul's for Jason to use and left it on Percy's bed. His bed that was big enough to fit two people. Jason didn't know about the sleeping bag yet, and both of Percy's parents were most likely going to be out of the apartment by the time the two of them woke up the next morning so he wouldn't have to find out. Percy wondered if he was actually ready to sink low enough to hide the sleeping bag and let Jason share a bed with him. The urge was strong, and he didn't have long to decide. He could sense the shower being turned off down the hall. A few minutes passed, and the sound of the bathroom door opening could be heard. Percy took a deep breath.

Jason walked in on Percy laying the sleeping bag out on the floor in front of his bed. The son of Poseidon looked up, and greeted him with a half wave. "Mom brought this over for you."

"Thanks," Jason said, sitting down next to him. Just like Percy thought, the pajamas didn't fit him right. The shirt was a bit too tight and the pants went above his ankles, but if the son of Jupiter had any complaints he didn't share them. "Are you going to tell me the real reason you came here?"

He should have known that Jason wasn't going to drop the subject so readily. Although they had their differences, the two were alike in a lot of ways besides being children of two of the Big Three. Jason was also pretty persistent, and once he was hooked on something he had a difficult time letting go of it. While it was a trait Percy might normally admire, right now it was just a pain in the ass.

"I can't tell you," Percy said, then quickly added: "At least not now. It's, uh..."

Jason held a hand up to stop him from going further. "I get it, man. I've spent enough time with the others to know how hard it is to carry a secret you can't share. But when you're ready, you know that we're all here for you. Especially me."

It was a mirror of the words Rachel had said to him the previous day, but coming from Jason it felt more... What? Percy wasn't sure, but it didn't help the knots in his stomach get any less tangled. He didn't even know if he would ever share this with him, much less the others. Maybe in thirty years, if they actually lived that long, he'll confess about having a crush. By then it'll probably be a faraway memory, and they'll crack jokes about it. At least he hoped it'd just be a memory.

Percy got into his own bed and slid under the covers. When he thought that Jason had fallen asleep, he began planning his next move. He couldn't get to Aphrodite the most direct way. He could probably try going through the lobby again and hoping that someone else was manning the front desk, and that they were more likely to let him through. But honestly, even if he managed to get to the elevator in one piece there were still holes in the plan. What if Aphrodite wasn't even there? He knew that the gods weren't ones to stick to one place for too long, a fact that Mr. D constantly complained of, so there was a high chance the goddess might be at one of her other haunts. The going to Olympus plan would only work if Percy was completely certain she was there, which he wasn't. So how else would he get to her? Especially if she apparently was avoiding him. He could ask one of her kids at camp for advice, but the one he was on best terms with was Piper. And his guilt meter would go through the roof if he asked her for help. There had to be some way to...

Percy turned his head to glance at Jason, and was surprised to find the blond awake. And looking at him. In the darkness of the room Percy wasn't sure what the other boy's reaction was at getting caught staring, but his voice was calm when he spoke. "You were muttering to yourself."

He was? Damn, did he pick up that habit from Leo? Percy wondered if Jason actually heard anything, but he didn't give any indication that he did.

"Your mom's really nice," Jason said. "And so is Paul. Your family is great."

Jason's own mom was dead, and even before that she wasn't exactly one to brag about. While Percy didn't know the full story, he heard enough snippets from Jason and his sister, Thalia, to know that their lives were not too cheery before.

"I used to have a step-dad," Percy said, "that wasn't Paul. Gabe. I called him Smelly Gabe. He was terrible—I've fought monsters that were nicer than him. But when my mom finally had a chance to get out of the relationship, she did. Everything's so much better now that he's gone."

Percy didn't add the fact that Sally was only with the guy for his sake, or exactly how she managed to get out of the marriage.

Jason didn't answer right away, but when he did there was a sort of affection in his voice. It took Percy a moment to decipher it as admiration. "She's pretty brave. You probably got that from her. I'm not sure where the recklessness and temper pops in though."

Snorting, Percy sat up. Those were definitely a part of his dad's influence, but he wasn't going to admit that out loud. Partly from loyalty, and partly because he doubted Poseidon would appreciate being called temperamental. "As if you can talk."

"You are so worse than me," Jason insisted.

"In your dreams!"

They carried on like this for almost an hour, until Percy was yawning and Jason had to strain to keep his eyes awake. It was probably best for them to go to sleep, but Percy didn't want to. As unexpected the sleepover was, he was really enjoying himself. And he knew that come tomorrow, the Roman would say his goodbyes and leave for gods' knows how long. He might not even see him until the new year, or maybe even later. He was used to spending months without seeing his other campers as Percy normally only stayed during the summer, but he wasn't fond of the idea of being away for so long.

Then again, that might actually be what he needed. If Percy didn't see Jason for a long time, would the spell get weaker? In all honesty, when Jason was across the country before, Percy didn't think about him as much. Perhaps whatever was wrong with him got stronger the closer to two of them were? In that case, what they needed was distance. It was for the best.

It still didn't make him feel better though.

The next morning, the two woke up to an empty apartment and breakfast on the table. Blue pancakes, blue toast, and blue juice. Jason poked at his food suspiciously and only dug in after Percy showed him that no, a monster did not sneak inside to poison their food. After they were well fed and packed, they headed to the bus terminal for their journey back to camp.

The more Percy thought about their upcoming separation, the better he felt about it. If his theory was correct, then he might not even need Aphrodite's help to fix the mess he was in. He could forget this ever happened and have a nice life with Annabeth, who will hopefully never even know that this occurred. He felt bad keeping such a huge secret from her, but he just wasn't sure what to say. He could probably admit to the curse. Hell, the daughter of Athena would most likely find it hilarious that Percy was blushing like a bride at Jason. How far they actually went with each other was a different story though. He did not want to admit that he had touched Jason's jewels.

When they settled onto the bus, Percy made sure to check in case there were any monsters in the nearby area. His luck when it came to these vehicles was pretty rotten, and he was not in the mood to watch another bus explode. It wouldn't take them all the way to camp, but Argus was going to pick them up after they got off their stop. When Jason asked about how jumpy he seemed, Percy explained about his time with the Furies. Which Jason seemed to think was funny because he kept snickering throughout the tale. For someone who was supposed to be a serious Roman, the guy sure did like to laugh at Percy's expense.

"It just sounds like you get stalked by ugly old ladies a lot," Jason finally said.

Percy thought about it and, to his horror, realized it was true. That or there was a very large proportion of the mythological community that consisted of them. He wasn't entirely sure how he felt about that. "They probably know what a nice catch I am."

Jason rolled his eyes, and looked as if he was trying to figure out if Percy meant that terrible pun or not (he had). "I'm sure they can find better."

His voice was low when he said it, as if it was more to himself than to his companion. After that, Jason stopped talking and simply stared out of the dirty window at the passing scenery. Percy wondered about the sudden change in mood, then decided that it didn't actually matter. They were nearing their stop by then, and the less they interacted with each other, the better. Still, he did feel somewhat disappointed.

When they got off the bus, Argus was there to greet them with one of the camp cars. A few mortals openly stared at him, and Percy was curious as to what they saw. Camp Half-Blood's security guard was completely covered in eyes; maybe they thought he had a major skin rash or something? They all slid into their seats and the rest of the ride was so silent that Percy was positive that Argus had a feeling something was up. Considering he never actually spoke, there was no real way to confirm it.

Chiron gave Percy a lecture that was pretty similar to the one his mom had given him, but he wasn't in any real trouble. Thankfully Mr. D wasn't around or else he might actually have to worry about punishment. It looked like Leo had come back from his quest earlier that same day, so Jason ran off to go see him before he had to leave.

Alone, Percy headed back to his cabin to dump all his stuff off. He could find Annabeth after since his mom had baked some cookies for him to give her. It would be nice to spend the afternoon with her after dealing with so much, and then he could maybe actually get to train at the arena. There was no way the Ares cabin was up to their same tricks again so soon.

But when he got to the cabin, all those plans went straight out the window. He almost dropped his bag, which would have meant disaster for the baked goods that rested inside it, but he somehow managed to hang onto it. Slowly, Percy crept towards his bed and stared down in a mix of fascination and horror at it. This had to be some sort of joke, right? Maybe Jason had told someone, or Grover found out, and they were just pulling a lame prank. Yet something told him that wasn't the case here.

Sitting neatly on his pillow was a beautifully wrapped gold parcel, with a note attached that contained elegant handwriting. It only had two words that could have any possible meaning, but Percy immediately knew which was the right one.

_I won't._


	3. Grover Gets a Surprise

**Author's Note**: I'm sorry for how long it took to get this out. Life got hectic for a little while there. The next chapter will be finished a lot quicker. Anyway thank you to everyone who supported this! I saw people recommending this fic on tumblr and that made me super happy. And special thanks to Shinigami89 for being huge sweetheart.

And now for something slightly different.

* * *

"Jason!" Leo called out. "Yo, man. I didn't die!"

The Roman grinned at his best friend, jogging over to close the distance between them. Leo had left on a quest for the Hephaestus cabin two weeks ago, and Jason didn't expect to see him again for a while. He was thankful that he didn't leave yesterday like he originally planned to. It would have sucked if he missed seeing the energetic demigod by just a couple of hours. When they were close enough the two fist bumped, and Leo immediately jumped into a summary of the events that befell him.

While the shorter teen was trying to describe the "hotties that trapped him inside a cursed tree," Jason couldn't help but marvel at how much has happened since they last spoke. Life as a demigod was never a slow one, so even if you didn't leave camp you were still bound to have some sort of weird thing happen. Getting shoved into plant life seemed much more plausible than making out with another guy though. Especially when that guy was Percy Jackson.

He shook that thought from his head. Whatever had occurred was now in the past; neither of them have even brought the subject up since it happened. Whenever Jason spent too much time with him, though, an odd tugging feeling would impatiently pull at his gut as if trying to grab his attention. He wasn't sure if it was guilt or what, but it made hanging out with the guy kind of awkward. Awkwarder. He just wished that it would always be like yesterday when he spent the day with him and his family—fun and relaxing without any of that embarrassing tension that now stalked them. Although Percy did keep acting pretty strangely...

Jason couldn't help but wonder what would Leo's reaction be if he told him about all of this. He'd probably take it as a joke and laugh for about a day, and then hit Jason for hurting Piper once he realized that Jason wasn't pranking him. Not that he could blame the guy; he wanted to hit himself for doing that. But even if Jason did tell anyone about it, he highly doubt it would be Leo. He trusted him with his life, but with info like this? No way. He would never be able to live that down. Besides if Percy kept it to himself, Jason wouldn't want to be the one who blabbed. At least, he hoped Percy kept it to himself. It was kind of difficult to gauge who was in on the secret with the whole pretending that nothing ever happen thing they both had going on.

"—but before the cyclops could eat me I was like, 'Whoa, I know Tyson, too!' And after that we just sort of started talking about forges, and he taught me this really cool technique. Hey, are you listening to me?

Jason blinked. Leo was peering at him, and for a second he was worried that the guy was going to pick up on what he was thinking about. But then Leo's lip curled into a smile, the one that sent warning flags into every person of authority's head, and he took a quick scan of their surroundings. Uh oh. Leo Valdez had an idea.

"Where's Pipes?" he said, standing on his tiptoe as if that would help him locate her better. "You're leaving today, right? Let's have a little fun first."

Normally Piper and Jason had an arrangement where they would stay together while going between camps. Once the quest activity became wildly hectic, though, they had to scrap that plan until things started to slow down. And it did not seem to be slowing down. Jason had a feeling that Annabeth and Chiron were trying to figure out what exactly was going on, but whenever he asked if he could help they'd do that thing where they say something cryptic then change the subject. How Percy spent years dealing with that, he'd never know.

"Is your definition of fun the same as my definition of fun?" Jason asked sternly, although he couldn't hide his smile.

"Have you ever looked in a dictionary?" Leo smiled back. "There's always more than one definition listed."

They both went off in search of the demigod, and they found her scolding one of her half-brothers. He apparently actually got into a fight with someone, which was surprising for the Aphrodite cabin. Piper noticed them and waved, but she didn't jog over to the boys until she had finished with her lecture. She gave them both a hug. "I wasn't expecting to see you two together."

"He actually punched someone?" Leo said, watching as the other demigod walked away. "Dude, you are so rubbing off on them. Pretty soon they'll be cutting their own hair with safety scissors."

"Shut up," she huffed. "They're really not that bad now that they don't have a dictator running the show. I think they miss Silena a lot though..."

They didn't say anything; none of them knew Silena but they all heard the stories. Leo, always one to break serious tensions, clasped his hands together and announced in a loud voice, "Anyway, since Jason's going back to Jupiter to get more stupider—ow! Don't shove me. As I was saying, we should party it up before he leaves. Like old times!"

"I remember less partying and more us almost getting killed by things in the old times," Jason said dryly.

"Dictionary. You should really take a look in one."

Leo's idea of partying was actually a game of hide and seek. Which, yeah, sounded pretty lame at first but there was also the added elements of both powers and weapons being allowed. And after being constantly on his feet without having much downtime, Jason definitely did not mind having a little lame fun. He was chosen to be it first since apparently being a child of the Big Three was an unfair advantage, so he stood next to a tree and counted to fifty as the other two hid. After getting yelled at by the nymph whom the tree belonged to, Jason went off to find them. Superpowered demigod or not, it was pretty difficult. He didn't give Camp Half-Blood that much credit for its size because Jupiter was bigger, but it did not make finding people easy.

He was searching around the cabins when he spotted Percy. The guy looked spooked, as if he saw a dead person or something. And given his track record, there was a high chance that he had. The son of Poseidon was walking quickly towards the Big House, but before he could leave the cabin area he seemed to change his mind and double back. It definitely was a weird sight to witness and Jason almost followed him to see what was going on. But he reminded himself that he was supposed to be hanging out with Piper and Leo, and they were probably getting impatient as to what was taking him so long.

It turned out that Piper was in the pegasus stables and Leo "borrowed" Annabeth's Yankees cap. The only reason Jason found him was because the guy's hand randomly burst into flames. After a couple more turns of this, with other campers joining the game, Jason realized that it was getting late and he seriously needed to get ready to leave. Reyna was nice and all, but her patience must be wearing thin at this point. He said his goodbyes to Leo who practically shrugged them off.

"It's not like you're boarding the Titanic, you know," he said. "I'll see you later."

Piper was less casual about it and gave him a pretty great goodbye kiss. And then another. Jason was ready for a third, but apparently luck was not on their side as someone chose that moment to come up and ask for Piper's help on something. Walking back to his own cabin to gather all of his stuff, Jason wondered if he should also say farewell to Percy. Yet once he thought of doing it, that tugging feeling returned and Jason knew that he wouldn't. It also reappeared on him during the bus ride back to camp, and in such an intensity that it really freaked him out. He ended up ignoring Percy for the rest of the ride back until the feeling went away, and he felt bad about that.

So Jason went back to his cabin to prepare for his long journey.

* * *

Reyna was as annoyed as Jason thought she would be at his late arrival, but she did a fine job of not showing it. Octavian, on the other hand, had spent the better part of an hour letting out passive aggressive commentary of the importance of keeping to schedule in times of trouble. When Jason cheerfully pointed out that his track record showed that he was far more useful during "times of trouble" than the legacy was, he was rewarded by watching the guy turn into a lovely shade of purple before storming away.

"You shouldn't have done that," Reyna mused. She was clearly trying to suppress the smile that was creeping onto her face. "He's still pretty sore about the whole Gaea debacle."

"The day I spare Octavian's feelings is the day he actually apologizes for being a scumbag," Jason retorted.

"He did have a point though, as much as I hate to admit it," she said. "Jason, times are very hectic right now and we haven't got a clue as to what's happening. I understand that you're needed at both camps, but when we call for you to come back you must get here as soon as possible.

If Reyna had planned on making him feel guilty, it sure worked. When Octavian criticized him it was just another Monday. But Jason actually respected Reyna, so knowing that he disappointed her was difficult to stomach. Especially since they were still trying to mend their broken bond after everything that had happened. Jason wasn't sure if she still carried a torch for him, but that didn't matter. What was important was working as a team, and he couldn't let some personal affairs get in the way of the legion.

All of that had happened about a week ago, and the son of Jupiter was still undergoing the process of catching up with the events of camp. Reyna, apparently, had been communicating with Annabeth via Iris Message on the strange happenings. When Jason questioned her about it, she found some sort of excuse and hurried off. Being left in the dark was not something he enjoyed; it was ranked up there with getting his teeth pulled and dealing with Mr. D's crazy followers. He realized that if he was going to get any kind of answer that he would have to find it himself. You know, like always

His first plan was to ask Hazel if she heard anything from her brother Nico. The kid, who spent most of his time in the Underworld, was almost like a goldmine of information because of all the time he spent sneaking around in the shadows. But when he went searching for her, he discovered that the daughter of Pluto had gotten some sort of bad cold and Frank forbade anyone from visiting her.

"No way," Frank looked apologetic, but he still held his ground. "If people go in and see her, she might get worse. Uh, hold on and let me grab a pen and paper, I can take a message."

Sighing, Jason turned down the offer and left the guy alone. Occasionally it was hard to tell if Frank was the best boyfriend in the world or the best mom at times like this. He would just have to figure out some other way to find out why everything is crazier than usual. He considered flat out demanding an answer, but he had a feeling that wouldn't work. As powerful as he was, Annabeth and Reyna were a lot scarier. He did not want to deal with any more scheming ladies at the moment either. Jason could try contacting Nico himself but the two weren't exactly besties. He was more likely to help Percy or his sister.

Should he go to Percy for help? The two of them together could definitely get to the bottom of things. But that odd sensation returned at the thought and Jason decided he would rather take his chances with Nico. He could Iris Message him, although when he dug through his pockets the teen realized he left all his money in his cabin. So he turned around and headed there.

One of the last people Jason had expected to see on his bed was the love goddess. And yet, there she was, sitting cross-legged at the edge of his comforter. She stared intently at a small, golden trimmed, compact mirror as if it was the most important thing in the world. Her features were forever changing—from blonde to brunette; dimpled to freckled. Mostly, Jason noted, she kind of looked like an older version of Piper. He probably would score a ton of boyfriend points if he told the girl that, but the demigod doubted that this was going to be a conversation he would want to share with her.

He waited quietly for Aphrodite to speak up. After a couple of minutes, however, he began to realize that she was way too engrossed with checking herself out and that he would most likely have to be the first to say something. Jason nervously approached his bed. He had faced down dozens of gods, but this particular one really put him on edge. It probably had to do with the fact that she A) was his girlfriend's mom and B) made him cheat on said girlfriend with Percy Jackson. So all in all, this was a meeting he definitely did not want to go through even though he knew it was necessary.

"Aphrodite," he said, bowing his head slightly. When that didn't catch her attention, he cleared his throat loudly and continued, "This is going to sound kind of rude, but what are you doing on my bed?"

She closed the mirror with a snap! and turned to face him. "That's not rude at all. I'm just checking up on you, seeing how you're doing after..."

The giggle that followed did not help calm Jason's nerves. While he was normally pretty in control of his emotions—you had to be if you wanted to get far as he did as a legionnaire—he was getting extremely tired of being a pawn in the games of the gods. It felt like he had spent his entire life getting his strings pulled by some goddess, and every time he finally got a break from it all, when he got a chance to live life for himself, something else popped up. So when he looked at Aphrodite, he couldn't help but feel anger and resentment boil inside him. He managed to push it down though, and he tried his best not to sound flustered when he spoke again.

"I'm fine, thanks. Did you visit Percy, too, and appear in his fountain or something?"

"Forget about Percy Jackson," she said, waving her hand as if Jason asked something trivial about the weather. "I already know how this is going to go for him, I practically made sure of that. No, but you're the interesting one here. Completely unaffected. The wild card, if you will. How this story ends will be decided entirely by you, and I simply can't wait to see what twists and turns you come up with! Oh, this is exciting!"

The way she said that certainly did not bode well for anyone, and it sounded like the complete opposite of exciting. Jason had been certain that Aphrodite was done with them after she made them do... stuff. If he were to be completely honest with himself, though, he had a feeling that she did still have some sort of hold on them. All those weird signs from Percy suddenly seemed ten times more important than they did before, and the son of Jupiter cursed himself for not taking them more seriously. It was obvious that something was bothering the guy, but Jason kept telling himself that he was just embarrassed after what they did together. But, really, that was just what he was hoping to be true. He wanted things to go back to normal and for all parties involved to simply forget that anything even happened. Yet here he was, standing next to the cause of all his problems and he knew that he was an idiot for even thinking that things could be as simple as that.

"You never lifted the spell off Percy," Jason said. "That's why he went to New York City, he was trying to find you. Why would you do this? I thought you had your fun! I'm your daughter's boyfriend, how could you jeopardize her relatio—"

The look in Aphrodite's eyes is what cut him off. All traces of joy were gone, and for the first time Jason really understood just how powerful this goddess was. She could destroy him right now, and she would look beautiful while doing it and not regret a thing. It was almost like he was seeing a totally different person, and he wondered if she had switched over to her Venus personality until he remembered that she was one of the few gods who didn't really differ between forms.

"I won't forgive you," she said coldly. "What you broke was very important to me, and you haven't even begun to make up for it. Piper may be my daughter, yes, but this goes beyond my children. I was actually much kinder to you than I could have been. So watch your tongue, Jason Grace, unless you want me to remove it. Or shove it down someone's, who is less attractive than Jackson, throat."

And then the smile was back, and it was as if she hadn't just threatened to force him to make out with someone ugly. "Well then! I think that's enough for today, don't you think? I'll just send you on your way then. You are way too far away all the way over here."

Jason took a few seconds to reply even though he already knew the answer to his question . "Send me where?"

"Do you really need to ask that?" Aphrodite laughed in amusement, her voice pleasant and empty of any of the danger it previously possessed. "You'll tell him to forgive me, won't you? I have a feeling he's going to be mad."

Then, suddenly, Jason found himself spiraling down into blackness.

* * *

When he awoke, Jason was lying face down on a bed. For a moment, he thought that he had dreamed the entire exchange with Aphrodite until the quiet and unfamiliar trickling of water crushed that hope. Didn't he say something about a fountain earlier? Lo and behold, there it was, the very same one he had mentioned, gushing out water only a couple of feet away from him. And that meant that he was sitting in Cabin Three of Camp Half-Blood. The blond groaned in annoyance; he had just reached his own camp just to be sent back to this one. Reyna was going to be so pissed. Sitting up, he gave the cabin a look around. Thankfully, Percy didn't seem to be there.

That gave him time to think up a game plan. He'd just have to sneak out and make his way back to Camp Jupiter without anyone realizing he was even here. And if someone did spot him, Jason could easily say that he forgot something and had to quickly return to retreive it. There was no way he was going to let himself become just another part of a deity's hissy fit, and he would make sure that whatever Aphrodite had been planning by this little escapade would fail.

And about two seconds after he thought that sentence, Percy Jackson opened the door and walked inside the cabin. Well, there goes that idea of ruining Aphrodite's plans. For some reason, the Greek smelled really flowery but Jason chose to ignore that. Percy paused mid-step when he noticed the son of Jupiter, and Jason could see a flash of different emotions on his face. It would have been funny if he didn't just get warned that the guy was likely to be ticked off. So he quickly got off the bed and offered an awkward wave.

"It's cleaner than the last time I've been in here," he said.

"Inspection was earlier," Percy replied, still looking like he got hit by Frank the elephant. "All my junk is under the bed. Aren't you supposed to be in California?"

"Believe me, I was asking myself the same thing."

A minute passed. Then another. Jason seriously dreaded explaining what exactly brought him to this humble abode, especially if Percy had been suffering because of Aphrodite all this time. Actually, when he thought about that, it kind of annoyed him. Why didn't Percy tell him? He could have helped. Yeah, it would have been embarrassing and uncomfortable, but Jason didn't like the idea of him shouldering all of this by himself. Sure, Jason told him that he could keep the secret to himself, but that was before he knew it actually involved him. But before Jason could say any of this, Percy plopped himself down on his bed and let out a heavy sigh.

"I am so over this whole demigod thing," he complained. "My autobiography is going to be all about how the perks are completely outweighed by everything else."

Jason smirked. "Even if the perks include a magical pen and flying horse?"

"Okay, maybe not all of them then."

They shared a laugh, and for a second everything was normal as long as you ignored the fact that Jason suddenly appeared cross country and that they practically rubbed genitals earlier that year. He knew that he'd have to ruin the moment by telling Percy about his conversation with Aphrodite, and as much as he wanted to delay that news, doing so might make things worse. So Jason sat down next to the son of Poseidon, turned his head so he could speak directly to him, and was met by lips brushing against his own.

A vast assortment of emotions rushed through him, and there was only one word to neatly summarize them all: What. What? What what what? A chorus of that single word exploded in his mind, and he didn't even notice that Percy had stopped kissing him until he saw the guy rolling on the ground in pain. Only then did he realize that he involuntarily shocked him with lightning. Jason hurriedly got up from the bed to help his friend, but Percy rolled out of his reach.

"What the hell?!" Percy yelled, sitting up. His shirt was smoking and his hair looked as if someone had rubbed a balloon all over it. "What was that for?"

Jason could not believe what he was hearing. "You kissed me! Out of nowhere. Excuse me for being a little shocked."

"Trust me," Percy muttered, "I'm more shocked than you."

The two glared at each other until Jason finally relented and held his hand out. Percy considered it, and Jason thought that he was going to continue to be a stubborn brat until he actually accepted the help. Once they were both standing next to each other, what had actually happened seemed to finally catch up with the two of them and their faces matched the color of Rachel's hair. Jason's theory was right; Aphrodite never did take her spell off of Percy, and now they were in such a deep mess he didn't have even a remote clue as to how to get out of it. Gods, why was he so blind?

They both started talking at once:

"Look, sorry about that. I don't know what happened, I just sudd—"

"Aphrodite sent me here."

Percy promptly shut his mouth. Then opened it. And shut it again. Jason was almost sure that he was going to start rolling on the ground all over again when the son of Poseidon finally composed himself. "She's actually speaking to you?"

"Uh. Yeah?"

"That crazy woman—" the cabin shook ominously, but Percy ignored it, "—banned me from Olympus! She apparently told her kids not to talk to me, 'cause I went to her cabin a few hours ago and they threw perfume at me. I smell like I took a took a dive into Juniper's personal bubble bath! But she's totally cool about going to see you?"

"Uh. Yeah?"

"Just making sure," Percy said, sitting back down on his bed. "What did she say?"

Jason was more interested in discussing that whole surprise kiss thing, but he had a feeling that was the opposite of what Percy wanted. So instead he recounted his encounter with the Olympian goddess, making sure to not mention any of the parts that was likely to offend his friend. When he finished, Percy's expression was grim but thankfully he didn't appear to be that mad anymore. In fact, he didn't seem surprised at all.

"She won't forgive us, okay, I got that," he nodded. "But did she say anything about leaving us alone? Or sending a gift basket with an apology note? Because I'd totally dig a gift basket right about now."

Jason shook his head. "All she said is that how this ends will depend on my decision. Whatever that's supposed to mean."

The look on Percy's face gave Jason a flashback to whenever Annabeth and Chiron did that thing where they had an entire conversation by just sharing a glance with each other. Whatever Aphrodite had meant by her words, Percy probably had a good idea about it. Whether or not he'd actually share that information was another thing entirely though. "Do you have any idea of what she meant by that?"

Without a word, Percy reached over and pulled something out from underneath his pillow. Jason couldn't help but gasp when he saw what it was: That stupid gold parcel that landed them in this situation to begin with. But why did Percy suddenly have it? He was pretty sure that the goddess had taken it with her after she made them... anyway. It didn't make any sense why Percy would now be in possession of it, unless she gave it to him. Which still confused him, because why give such a precious item away to the people who broke it in the first place? He almost wanted to look inside, just to see if the goddess didn't replace her item with some sort of joke, but he knew better than to do that. Rule number one: If a god told you not to look at something, then don't do it unless there was some sort of chance you would not die horribly if you disobeyed. There was no such chance at the moment.

"I found this on my bed the day you went back to Camp Jupiter," Percy explained. He lightly tossed it in the air and caught it, which seemed dangerous, but he didn't really looked like he cared at this point. "I almost went to Mr. D for help after I found it, but I'm not that desperate yet. Anyway, we need to talk about the most important piece of information here: You don't like me. Like, at all?"

How the hell was that the most important bit? That weird feeling in his gut returned, but Jason ignored it. Hesitantly, he shook his head and Percy visibly deflated at the answer. But he quickly shook it off. "That's less to worry about then. All we have to do is figure out what you're supposed to choose to do so we can end this."

Jason noted the irony in the current situation—not too long ago, Percy was given a choice that would change the entire course of the world. Granted, there was a bit of a difference between the destruction of the gods and teenage romance. The former was nowhere near as terrifying as having to deal with feelings and possible girlfriends scorned. Jason knew that it must suck knowing that your fate depended on someone other than yourself, so he couldn't help but reach other and pat Percy on the back. A friendly pat. A completely platonic, bro pat. But the way Percy leaned into his hand sent warning flags in his head, and he just knew that his fellow demigod was seeing that as anything but platonic. And that gave him an idea.

"Hey," Jason said slowly. If his plan was wrong, this was going to be pretty embarrassing, but he continued either way. "Remember when I kissed you at the lake? For, uh, closure? Maybe... What if I did that again? Maybe we're not supposed to wait until she fixes up her mess, but we have to do something drastic instead. That could work, right?"

Percy frowned. "But I just kissed you and the only thing that happened was a near death experience."

"Because you initiated it," the blond explained, "and you're still under the spell. I'm not. So if I kiss you under my own free will..."

"It's possible," Percy said gravely, although there was a sparkle in his eyes that wasn't there before. "So, what, a quick smooch and we'll see what happens next?"

Jason nodded. That sensation in his gut was churning again, but, like always, he ignored it. Both boys knew that the chances of this working wasn't exactly that high, though Percy probably didn't really care either way. It didn't even have to be a proper kiss, or a very long one, he just had to steadily press his lips against Percy's and, to quote, "see what happens next." And so he leaned over the son of Poseidon, their noses brushing each other, and then kissed him. It mirrored that other one from many months ago eerily well, but then Percy began to really turn it into a kiss.

His hands found their way to Jason's hips, and they were steering the blond closer to him until Jason was only a few inches away from falling on top of his lap. His mouth moved with a sort of intensity that would make the most innocent of Hunters different shades of red, and it took Jason way too long to realize that he was enjoying this more than he should be considering he was no longer enchanted. And yet, when Percy guided him to the bed he didn't object; when the dark haired teen's hands traveled underneath his shirt he simply moved slightly to make it easier for him. Pretty soon he found himself without a shirt, and he wasn't even sure how that happened. They must have stopped kissing long enough to yank it off him, right? He had no idea.

Around the time Percy's lips found his neck, Jason began to realize that he should probably put a stop to what was happening. This was definitely why Aphrodite sent him here; she knew that this was going to happen. Hell, she probably made it happen herself. Maybe his decision wasn't kissing Percy, but putting a stop to it when it started to go too far. Taking a deep breath, the Roman got ready to push the other teen away when suddenly a fist struck him squarely in the face.

Percy Jackson just punched him. Holy shit.

When the dancing stars were finally no longer part of his vision, Jason instantly went into a defensive position. But Percy was already at the other side of the bed, nursing his now bruised knuckles. A flash of regret appeared on the boy's face, although whether he was regretting hitting Jason or the pain was up for debate.

"Okay," Jason said, clutching his face. He was almost certain that his nose was bleeding. "I think you have this backwards. I'm pretty sure I was supposed to punch you, not the other way around."

"I panicked!" Percy admitted. "Look, I had everything all planned out. I was going to avoid you for the rest of my life or at least until this whole thing blew over. But no, you just had to show up and be all, 'Hey Percy, let's kiss!' That idea sucked, by the way."

"Yeah, I bet it sucked. Like how you were just sucking my face."

He snorted. "Ha. At least that's all I sucked."

Now, between the two, anyone would say Jason was the more mature one. He had better composure, and he was less likely to do something irrational because of the spur of the moment. Jason Grace was, as many have stated, "Roman through and through." With all of this in mind, Jason grabbed the nearest pillow and smacked his friend over the head with it. Percy's reaction was immediate and unsurprising: He attacked back. And that was how two teenagers who have saved the world multiple times had a pillow fight.

The battle was vicious. Feathers wildly flew into the air as each cushioned blow struck its opponent. Blood from Jason's injured nose smeared against pillowcases and bed sheets, and man, it was going to be awkward to explain that one away. But neither cared about that, as only one thought danced through their minds: To hit the other very hard. It was only when most of the stuffing was now outside the pillows rather than in them that they slowed down, and Percy dropped what remained of his weapon down on the bed beside him. Jason found himself straddling the demigod, his extremely deflated pillow raised over both their heads. With just one strike, he could end this terrible fight. And without any trace of remorse, Jason hit Percy in the face with his pillow.

"Ow," the loser deadpanned. "You got me. I'm dead."

A moment of silence followed and then they both laughed. Jason couldn't help but be amused that they went from kissing to hitting each other with bed accessories. He noticed that Percy's arms had once again wrapped themselves around his hips, but Jason had no idea if it was a conscious action or not. Before he could point it out, the door opened.

"There you are," Grover said. "Annabeth has been looking for you and—"

The satyr's eyes widened as he took in the sight. The view of Jason sitting on top of Percy, the bed in disarray, and blood covering them probably was not what he was expecting to see. Plus Jason was still shirtless, a fact he conveniently forgot about until just this moment. Grover pointed at them accusingly, gaping, and the blond could practically hear the gears turning in his head. This was it, he thought, Grover will have finally figured out what they had been hiding from him since that fateful quest. Or something equally as mortifying, in any case. He tried to think of some sort of excuse when, without any warning, Grover yelled something that may or may not be appropriate for younger audiences and ran out of the cabin.

"Do you think he suspects anything?" Jason muttered.

"Shhh," Percy lifted his head up to get a better view of the doorway. His arms let go of the blond's waist. "Move, I need to go talk to him and... Oh. Oh no, didn't he say something about Annabeth?"

Right on cue, the sound of approaching footsteps could be heard right outside the door. Panicking, Jason leaped off the bed. He had no idea how they were going to explain this to the daughter of Athena, especially if she ran into Grover before coming here. When he saw the girl's hair come into view of the doorway, he braced himself for the oncoming avalanche of questions when, suddenly, the fountain literally exploded. Annabeth cried out in surprise, and Jason instantly knew what happened; Percy was providing cover for him. Without a moment to spare, the blond used the distraction to throw himself onto the ground and slide underneath the bed where he discovered that, yes, Percy did in fact throw all of his garbage there to pass inspection. How lovely.

"Percy!" Annabeth sputtered. "What in Hades are you doing?"

"I don't know," Percy lied. "I think someone boobytrapped my room. Even my bed's a wreck."

Jason immediately saw a couple of holes in the story, yet for some reason Annabeth didn't point them out. He had no idea why, considering she was easily the smartest person that he knew, yet she ignored the blood covering the sheets and other red flags in favor for her actual question. "I just saw Grover running from here. He was covering his eyes and tripping over everything. Any idea why?"

"I can ask him. Unless you want to?"

There was no response at first, but Annabeth finally sighed. "No, you can. I just wanted to tell you that Chiron called for a counselors meeting, and we should all be there in about an hour. It's about all the quests we've been getting lately. He thinks there's more to it than... Never mind. Don't be late, seaweed brain. We'll talk about all of this later, I need to find the other counselors now."

Jason couldn't see it, but he was pretty sure they kissed and then she was gone, her wet sneakers squeaking into the distance. Once he was sure the coast was clear, he dragged himself out from under the bed and he instantly saw why Annabeth didn't question Percy harder. When he made the fountain blow up, he made sure that everything was affected. The walls, the bed, almost every inch of the cabin was wet. Percy even managed to wash away any traces of blood from the crime scene. The guy in question was staring at the door after his girlfriend, an unreadable expression on his face. Yet Jason was pretty sure he knew what he was thinking about.

"I need to tell her," he said. "I really don't want to, but I can't lie to her about this anymore. The _only _reason she left so easily is because she's busy. You should tell Piper, too. Especially since now we know you're still under the spell."

Jason frowned. "What do you mean by that?"

"You were definitely kissing me back," Percy replied casually, lifting up Jason's drenched shirt from the ground with his forefingers. "I'm not complaining, but it takes two to tango. Er... I think so, anyway, I've never actually tangoed before. Whatever. I guess Aphrodite made it less obvious for you or something."

And just like before, Jason immediately noticed the holes in this story as well. Aphrodite flat out said that Percy was the only one still under the spell; Jason had been left alone, which was why it was up to him to fix this mess. She could have been lying, of course, but he had a feeling that wasn't the case. Percy was right as well. Jason did kiss back, and he was thoroughly enjoying the fact that he was kissing back. Just like that, the strange feeling in his gut that never failed to appear whenever he was around the son of Poseidon made perfect sense. Jason didn't have the excuse of being affected by the will of a god like Percy did. While Annabeth might be understanding—albeit mad—when told the truth, Piper most likely won't. And she didn't have any reason to be.

Jason legitimately liked Percy, and he had no one to blame but himself.


	4. I Encounter a Girlfriend

**Author's Note**: Yo guys! I hope you're having a decent summer. I'm actually not too crazy about the very beginning of this, but I think I've made you wait long enough for it so, whatever. I'm posting it anyway. Sorry! This chapter is also a little on the short side because of this but after this one, the plot is going to be picking up a lot more and things will be happening, aka future chapters will be longer than the ones already posted. So I'm excited about that! Enjoy.

* * *

"Look, Annabeth, the thing is... I kissed Jason. That's, uh, a thing that happened. Sorry? I have a perfectly reasonable explanation, though! "

No response.

"I didn't mean to do it! Well, I did, but it wasn't my fault. I know that sounds... sounds... Ugh."

Percy let out a loud sigh, running a hand through his ruffled hair. It was beginning to get much longer than he liked it, and he had come to the habit of letting his girlfriend cut it for him while he was at camp. However, considering what he was planning on telling her it wasn't really a surprise that he didn't want her waving a sharp object anywhere near his head. That is, if he even managed to say anything at all.

He kept repeating different scenarios in his head, but they all seemed so wrong. On one hand, he didn't want to tell Annabeth _all_ of the little details. That might be a little too traumatizing for the both of them. To be honest, he wasn't exactly sure if he would be able to voice all the things that had happened without dying of utter embarrassment in the middle of it. He had to tell her the truth though, no matter what. That was the one thing he knew for certain; once Percy firmly and truly decided on something, it usually took the end of the world to force him to change his mind. The problem was how would he go about it. He considered gathering Piper and Annabeth together and telling them both at the same time, but when he suggested that idea to Jason the poor guy practically started to choke. Percy really couldn't blame him—it took him awhile to accept the fact that Aphrodite royally screwed him over, and Jason literally just found out about it. They would probably have to deal with admitting the truth to Piper afterwards.

Speaking of Piper, he could see her walking ahead of him in the distance. The two of them were making their way to the Big House where the camp counselors held their very important meetings in the rec room. Jason had wanted to come as well since Annabeth made it sound very urgent, but Percy convinced him that it was best if he stayed in the Poseidon cabin. They had no way to explain how the Roman had gotten here suddenly and it would only look suspicious, especially considering he literally just left only a week prior. All they had to do was keep it a secret between them—and Grover, which Percy wanted to forget about—and find a way to get him back to California without anyone realizing he had ever left it. How hard could it be?

Those were probably the most cursed five words in all of existence.

In any case, the boys agreed that Percy would go to the meeting by himself and then report whatever they talked about back to Jason. While on the way there, Percy practiced what he would possibly say to his girlfriend whenever he got the chance to. He thought of doing it after the gathering, but confessing to Annabeth while Jason was sitting on his bed was possibly the worst plan he could ever think of.

Piper reached the doorway and she paused at it, holding the door open for Percy. He felt his stomach lurch, most likely in guilt. He almost wanted to yell out, "Sorry, I took your boyfriend from you, please don't kill me!" at her but that might make things even worse. And he technically didn't steal anyone from anybody, even though a part of him wanted to. But that part didn't actually count considering it was being influenced by the infamous love goddess. If only Annabeth would actually buy that excuse.

"You look so serious," Piper commented once her fellow demigod reached her. "What's up?"

"Just wondering what this is about," Percy lied. He felt so bad about it, but it wasn't his place to tell her the truth; that was Jason's job. "Annabeth sounded like it was pretty important."

The girl nodded before leaning in more closely, her voice lowering. "It is. You know how I've been tagging along with her lately, right? I don't know the full story, but I think she figured out what's been going on with all the quests."

Now _that_ was interesting. The fact that the girl would not reveal anything to him was beginning to annoy him as much as the whole Jason problem was. Annabeth had a history of keeping things from Percy, but he was starting to hope that they had gotten past that stage. Then again, considering it was her, there definitely had to be a good reason that she kept her lips sealed about it all. Percy was not really in the position to criticize someone for not telling the truth.

Apparently they were the last counselors to arrive with the exception of the daughter of Athena herself. Leo was chatting with the Stoll brothers, but he stopped and waved once he saw them enter the room. Piper immediately went and sat on his other side. Percy gave the group a quick look over before sitting down next to her. No one else appeared to know what they had been summoned for, but they all probably had an idea. There really was only one thing that had been on their mind lately. It was actually a surprise that all of the counselors were together in camp at the same time. They were either very lucky with that, or it was great planning. Percy had a feeling he knew which one it was.

And practically on cue, Annabeth arrived, followed by Rachel and Chiron. The two girls didn't sit but instead stood on either side of him. It almost looked like they were a sort of honor guard for the centaur, which would have been funny if they didn't all share the same grim expression on their faces. If it wasn't for the fact they were wearing the signature bright orange t-shirt Percy would ask if there was a funeral taking place that no one told him about.

"I know you're wondering why we called this meeting," Chiron began. "As you're all aware, things have been rather unusual for us for the past year."

"Yeah," Clarisse snorted. "Even the Aphrodite cabin are being forced to go outside. It's a disaster."

"Watch it," Piper moved to get out of her seat, but both Percy and Leo grabbed onto her arms to stop her. While Clarisse had gotten better over the years, she was still one of the last people anyone would want to get into a fight with.

"I would have phrased it different, but essentially, yes," Chiron continued. "The quest frequency level has been more frenetic than I've seen it in centuries. At first, we thought it might just be a temporary spike in activity but it has been going on for far too long to be something we don't take seriously. Annabeth and Rachel think that they have an idea of what's been going on."

"And Reyna," Rachel added. She looked pleased of herself. A lot of people still thought of her as just the spooky chick who occasionally turned into a night light and gave prophecies, so she loved it whenever she was able to contribute in a way that did not involve any of those things. "We are still missing a few details, though..."

"Nonetheless, you should tell them."

They both nodded and Annabeth stepped forward. "To be honest, I kind of suspected this for a while now. But there's only so much we can do without a prophecy—" all eyes turned to Rachel, who gave an apologetic shrug in return, "—and we just don't have one at the moment. We keep asking, and Reyna's been working Octavian like the dog he is—sorry, Chiron. Anyway, both here and at Camp Jupiter we've been hitting dead ends on that front."

"Why do you think we're not getting a prophecy about this?" Percy asked. "We're getting other ones, so why not about the thing that's causing this mess?"

"I'm not sure," Rachel admitted. "It's almost like there's some sort of... block. But I'm certain there is one, and either the Romans will find it first or I'll get all misty again and announce it. We just have to hope it happens quickly or..."

"Great," Leo groaned. "Here's the whole end of the world part."

"We don't know about that yet," Annabeth had on her lecture face now which featured an annoyed scowl. She didn't really like it when people made side commentary while she did a presentation, and it was oddly adorable except for the fact that she could be terrifying when angered. "But we do know one thing: None of this is a coincidence. After looking at the recent quests, almost all of them had to do with an item being stolen that either belonged to a god or had some sort of significance in our mythology. And, yeah, we could write some of it off as the gods being petty and using the confusion to get back at each other, but that's not always the case. I personally know that my mother would never—"

"What she means is," Chiron interrupted, "we think someone is purposely causing a bit of a stir. Percy, do you remember your very first summer here?"

The son of Poseidon had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. "You mean the time I was on the most wanted list? When I thought my mom was killed by a minotaur? When I totally kicked Ares' butt and he cursed me for it? Yeah, it rings a bell or three."

"We think that someone is manipulating us like that time with Kronos. Not all of you were around for that, but I'm sure you heard of it. The Titan had Zeus' master bolt stolen in order to cause a war between the gods. This appears to mirror that incident only in a much larger scale. And I'm not entirely sure if it's for the same purpose either, but we can't really say what's a fact and what's a theory until we learn more."

Uncertain murmuring passed throughout the room. Butch, from the Iris cabin, raised his hand before speaking. "Who in Hades could actually pull something like this off?"

The three of them shared a look before Annabeth answered. "That, sadly, is one of our missing details. We have no idea."

The murmuring then broke out into outright chatter. Percy understood the frustration; he was never the type to just wait around for the answers to be handed to him. The demigod would dive into things head first, which got on the nerves of everyone who wasn't him but so far that method hasn't failed him. Okay, well, it hasn't failed him enough that he ended up dead from doing it. So the fact that they have just been sitting around, not doing much about it, was not something that made him happy. But at the same time he understood why they had to wait. The world, especially the mythical part of it, was a very big place and if you lacked a decent lead then finding something in it could take forever. The satyrs' old search for the god, Pan, was the perfect example of this. So unless they came across some sort of hint as to who or what was pulling the strings here the best they could do would be to minimize the damage done.

Percy glanced at Annabeth. She had been working so diligently to figure out this problem while he was too self-absorbed with his Jason problem to properly help. He couldn't even be mad about being left in the dark since he could now see her reasoning. She probably didn't bring him into the loop earlier because Annabeth knew that Percy would rush in the moment he knew something bigger was going on, and she couldn't risk that happening until she knew more of the truth. Oh, yeah, he was totally a great hero. Superb. Way to think about the people instead of yourself, Jackson.

"So whenever you get the prophecy, you think you can fix this? I'm getting tired of leaving every other week," Travis asked.

It took Pecy a moment to realize everyone was looking at him. "Hey, what makes you think that the prophecy is going to involve me?"

"Did you really just say that?"

"Percy," Clarisse rolled her eyes. "Even when a prophecy doesn't involve you, you will somehow still find a way to make sure that it does. So quit that humble crap before I hit you. And don't defend him, blondie, 'cause you can't talk either."

Percy gaped and looked around the room for someone who would argue for him. Piper decided that would be a great time to inspect her nails and Leo just shrugged in a way that said, "Well, they have a point." Which they did, yeah, but they made it sound like he was just some attention crazed jerk! It wasn't his fault that Kronos and Gaea made everything so personal so he was forced to get involved every single time. And considering that people rarely volunteered to do the jobs with the highest mortality rate around here, you'd think they wouldn't hold the fact that he regularly did against him so many times.

"No matter who has to get involved," Chiron interjected, "we will put an end to this. I have to go to speak with Mr. D now, so if you'll excuse me..."

Everyone took that as the signal that the meeting was over. Chairs were scraped back as campers got up to their feet, chatting with one another, and headed to the exit. Piper and Leo appeared to be in deep conversation over something, but before Percy would walk over to see what was up Annabeth cut in between them. For a second there, Percy actually forgot what he had been planning on revealing to her. Even more importantly, he forgot what she saw.

"Can I talk to you?" she said under her breath. "Alone?"

Percy nodded, licking his lips. Considering he was a son of Poseidon, his throat felt unnaturally dry for some reason. The two of them waved goodbye to their friends and walked outside together. Percy assumed that just getting out there would be enough and slowed to face her, but Annabeth was quickly walking in the direction of the lake. For a split second he had the crazy thought that Annabeth had somehow learned that he and Jason once kissed there and was dragging him to the scene of the crime. Then he remembered that the two of them frequently went to the lake together, and it was even the spot of their first kiss. The fact that he thought about his kiss with Jason before the one shared with his girlfriend let another wave of guilt wash over Percy.

Once they reached the shore line of the lake, Annabeth stopped walking. Percy stood in front of her, his arms awkwardly swinging at his sides. He wanted to confess to her first, but Annabeth definitely looked like she had something to say so he kept his mouth shut.

"Sorry," she finally blurted out. "About keeping all of that a secret from you. I should have told you, but I—"

This was not how Percy expected the conversation to go. He shook his head vigorously, the frown on his face deepening. "What? No, don't worry about that. I know how you get when you're working on something. Remember the Mark of Athena?"

She let out a laugh at that. There was no way either of them was going to forget how that ended up. But Annabeth did look somewhat relieved after that, as if some invisible weight was lifted off her shoulders. "I was just so sure I'd have figured everything out, and the next thing I knew, it's been months and I was still clueless. Gods, I'm supposed to be _smart!_"

"Annabeth," Percy closed the distance between them, wrapping his arms around her waist. "You're the smartest person I know. You'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. And then we can go and beat up whoever is messing with us like this. You know, what we usually do."

The blonde made a sort of humming noise in response, leaning into her boyfriend. They stood like that for a few minutes before she finally pulled away, the look on her face replaced by another. This one was also serious, but Percy could tell that she was thinking about something besides her possible failings now.

"What happened in your cabin earlier? I tried looking for Grover, but I couldn't find him anywhere. I thought that he may have run off to Juniper, but he wasn't with her... Something happened in there, and please don't feed me that story about the fountain malfunctioning again. It's an insult to my intelligence."

Percy knew that this was the moment. He probably wouldn't have a better opening than this one. But when he opened his mouth, nothing came out. Annabeth was currently freaking over the mystery of the quests to the point that she was doubting her ability. And Percy realized that if he dumped the Aphrodite news on her, at this moment, he would only bring her more stress. He wasn't chickening out on what he decided to do; he still completely believed that he had to tell her, and Piper, the truth. But there was way too much going on at the time, and he figured that he should wait until things slowed down. He was still going to tell her what happened, just not at that exact moment.

"We got into a fight," he lied. He almost wanted to throw up after saying it, but he tried to keep a straight face. Annabeth was extremely good at reading people though, and she knew Percy like the back of her hand, so he wasn't sure if she would buy it.

She looked skeptical at first, and rightfully so, but it gave way to a softer expression. Percy wasn't exactly sure what that meant, but he took it as a sign that things were okay right now. Annabeth gave him a peck on the cheek then wiggled out of his grasp.

"You go apologize to him," she said. "I'm going to go talk to Rachel. See you later?"

Percy nodded, touching the spot she kissed him. He watched her go before turning around himself. He definitely needed to find Grover before she did.

He found the guy in a huddle of nymphs. Juniper spotted him first, and by the look on her face Percy knew that she was not happy at him. He approached the group cautiously, making sure to stop a good few feet away in case any of them lunged at him. He had seen nature spirits angry before, and it usually was never pretty.

"Go away," she sniffed. "Grover doesn't want to see you."

"I just want to explain myself," Percy pleaded. "Please? It really wasn't what it looked like."

The nymphs continued to look aggravated but a hint of confusion appeared on their features, and Percy practically sighed in relief. It looked like Grover didn't actually tell them what Percy did to upset him, just that something happened. That was good. The less people who knew, the less likely it would get back to Annabeth before he was able to tell her.

Grover didn't reply right away, but eventually there was a deep sigh and he walked over to his friend. He still looked a little queasy. After reassuring his girlfriend that everything was okay, the girls all left them to their own devices. The silence that followed was so awkward that Percy actually might have preferred it if the girls had stayed.

"If it wasn't what it looked like, then what was it?" Grover finally asked. He was definitely blushing.

And before Percy could comprehend it, he was telling his best friend everything that had happened until now. Well, almost everything. He wasn't cruel enough to give the intimate details of the affair. Considering that he failed to confess to Annabeth, he probably felt that he had to tell at least one person other than Jason. The more Percy talked, the more exaggerated the expression on Grover's face became. He almost wanted to laugh at the satyr, but that was probably a terrible idea given that he now had information that could forever ruin Percy's life.

Not that Grover would use it against him, of course, but Percy watched teen movies. He knew how this stuff turned out even by accident.

When he finally finished the tale, Grover had to use a tree for support. While he still looked like he wanted to claw his eyeballs out of his face, he did appear much more understanding of the situation. Or maybe Percy was only imagining that, and Grover wanted to cry even more.

"You need to tell Annabeth," he finally said. "Why didn't you tell her?"

Percy hesitated. He had a reason, but for some reason he didn't want to say it out loud. It was as if admitting it would somehow invalidate his decision. "She's under a lot of pressure right now. I didn't want to add more."

"And Jason? What are you going to do about him?"

"Well, after we send him back—"

_"He's still here?!"_

"Of course he's still here," Percy stared at his friend. "What did you think I did, FedEx him back to California?"

Grover looked taken aback. "Don't be ridiculous. You could have used the Hermes Express!"

"We are not sticking the son of Jupiter into a crate and shipping him to his camp."

"I guess you're right. I don't think we could have afforded it anyway," the satyr sighed in defeat. "I heard Piper and Annabeth talking the other day. Apparently even Reyna is starting to lose patience with how long this is taking to figure out. I think the Romans are taking it as an insult, and one of their leaders skipping out on duties might not make things better."

"He's not skipping out," Percy protested. "Okay, he is a little. Not on purpose!"

Grover shrugged, picking up a can from the ground and chomping into it.

No one mentioned the Romans getting antsy to Percy. Not that he was surprised by it—he accepted their culture more easily than the other Greek demigods considering he lived it shortly so he understood them better than most people in Camp Half-Blood. But if they actually dove in without any support, then that might be a problem. Why didn't Jason mention that to him? Or did no one bother to tell him either? Seriously, what was up what everyone keeping the two of them in the dark like this? It's not like they were keeping things from everyone else!

Wait. Oh, right.

"I'll sneak him out after I go back to the cabin. I promise we won't do anything weird."

At those words, Grover turned a fresh shade of green and covered his ears. "_Blaa-ha-ha_! Don't mention it! I need to get the image out of my head."

_Me too_, Percy thought.

* * *

Jason was pacing when Percy returned to the Poseidon cabin. The blond paused midstep at the intrusion, his eyes darting around for a hiding spot but he relaxed once he saw who it was. Percy imagined the guy leaping behind a drawer every time someone loudly walked past and he had to stop himself from snickering.

"Well?" Jason asked. "How'd it go?"

Percy fell into an explanation of what he learned at the meeting. He even mentioned what Grover had told him of the Romans becoming restless, but Jason didn't appear surprised or disturbed the news. He just nodded his head, his brow furrowing, as he absorbed it all. He didn't even seem to notice when Percy stopped speaking, and he looked surprised when he glanced up as if he couldn't believe that the other teen's lips stopped moving.

"And? What about Annabeth?"

"Uh, yeah. About that whole telling our girlfriends thing... Can we postpone it? They're kind of in a lot of stress already, and I don't want to add to that. But when this is all over, we'll tell them first thing! Is that okay?"

Was it just him, or did Jason look positively ecstatic at that news? Actually, now that he thought about it, the guy had been acting strangely ever since everything had been brought out into the open. While Percy could understand why it might be a tad awkward after that, he figured that things would be easier. Hell, Percy began to relax ever so slightly now that he knew for sure that he wasn't Aphrodite's only target. But it seemed to have the complete reverse effect on Jason. Maybe the goddess had said something else to the guy and he was keeping it a secret for whatever reason? Perhaps she threatened him with a manicure or something even more terrifying.

Jason had stopped pacing and was sitting on the very edge of the bed, leaning out towards Percy. He looked pretty attractive like that, with how his muscles tensed as he pressed forward with a serious lo—no! Bad! Percy was going to have to invest in a spray bottle for every time this happened. Oh gods, he was like a dumb teenager with a crush. Well, okay, he was literally a dumb teenager with a crush. But why did he have to actually _act_ like it?

"I can manage that," Jason finally said after Percy had already forgotten what they were discussing. "Did you find Grover?"

"Yeah. He sort of knows everything now... But he promised not to tell anyone. You should probably stay away from him if he comes by carrying a huge box and stamps though."

"What?"

"Nothing. Inside joke. We should get you back home."

For a split second a look of disappointed fell on the blond's face, but it slid off quickly. He got off the bed (this time it was Percy's turn to look disappointed) and he gestured towards the exit. "I already thought of a plan. I'm just going to summon Tempest and get away that way."

Percy immediately saw a hole in the plan. "I think someone might notice a bunch of storm clouds approaching camp, dude."

"Yeah, but—"

"We can still go with that," he continued. "But why don't you leave camp on Blackjack? Just fly with him until you're out of the immediate area, then you can summon your windy thing and go on your way. No one will notice if one of the pegasi decided to stretch its wings out."

"Did you just call Tempest my 'windy thing'?"

Rolling his eyes, Percy grabbed the Roman's wrist—he pretended not to see his cheeks burn red at the touch—and took off to the door. After making sure that the coast was clear, he lead them over to the stables. They came across people a few times, but it was dark enough that they didn't notice anything peculiar about the two boys. Or they didn't care. Either way, the trip to get Blackjack was so easy that Percy was beginning to get paranoid over it. Things never went as planned for him. When everything appeared a-okay, something would happen. He would be turned into a guinea pig or blown out of a volcano or other not planned stuff! But they easily found their way to the stables, and Jason mounted on the pegasus, and not a single thing went wrong.

"Maybe I'm getting better at this whole sneaking around thing," Percy said, petting Blackjack's mane.

"No way, boss!" the horse replied. Jason laughed.

"You'll probably get caught the moment you step outside," he said.

"And what about you? You'll get away freely while I have to deal with harpies?"

Jason considered that for a moment. "Yeah. Pretty much. I was always better at sneaking than you."

"In your dreams, Grace."

The two shared a smile, holding each other's gaze longer than what was actually necessary. Percy's eyes fell to Jason's lips, his neck, his exposed collarbone, and he almost wanted to reach out and touch all of it but he was out of reach on top of Blackjack. Speaking of the horse, that also kind of ruined the mood. Percy may have done many things he never imagined he would the last few weeks, but he drew the line at groping another guy while a magical creature watched.

Jason apparently shared the sentiment because he cleared his throat and looked away. "Right. I'm just going to go now. I'll IM you when I get there. Just so you'll know I didn't get eaten by an ogre or something."

"Don't steal my horse. I know how much cooler he is than your windy thing."

Blackjack stepped outside the stable, his wings spreading outwards towards the sky. Jason glanced over his shoulder, trying his best to fight against the smile that was tugging at his lips. "In your dreams, Jackson."

And with that, they shot into the air and flew away. Percy watched until the two were just a speck in the sky before closing up the stables and making his way back to the cabin. He hadn't gone too far, though, when he heard some rustling in the bushes nearby. He froze in his tracks. Was it one of the nymphs? Some campers who were also skirting along the edges of curfew? He was just being paranoid again. It couldn't be that someone had been spying on them. Seriously, like who would honestly care what two guys were doing in the stables. Percy had to stop being so jumpy lately, that could cause trouble in the future.

But just as he thought that, a figure emerged from the greenery. She walked straight to him, her eyes alight with determination, and Percy couldn't help but curse his luck. It seriously did happen just like Jason said it would; he wasn't sure whether to be impressed or annoyed by it. But he needed to set that thought aside because now there was an angry looking girl standing right in front of him, her hands on her hips, and a look on her face that would make Hades back away.

"Percy," Piper said, "exactly what was my boyfriend doing here?"

Suddenly the volcano thing didn't seem all that bad.


End file.
